A bomb threat at Oxford High School has led to a student’s arrest.
Cameron Benjamin Blankenship, 17, was arraigned Thursday, Nov. 8 in the Rochester Hills 52-3 District Court before Magistrate Marie Soma on the felony charge of making a false report or threat of a bomb.
Superintendent Dr. Bill Skilling confirmed late Wednesday (Nov. 7) afternoon that an arrest warrant had been issued for a high school student, who allegedly wrote a bomb threat inside a boys restroom stall at OHS on Friday, Nov. 2.
If convicted, Blankenship could face up to four years in prison. Because he’s 17 years old, he was charged as an adult.
Blankenship was released from Oakland County Jail on a $25,000 personal bond. He has a preliminary exam conference scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13. 52-3 District Judge Julie A. Nicholson has been assigned the case.
A custodian at the high school found the written threat sometime before 6:40 a.m. Friday, according to Assistant Superintendent Nancy Kammer.
The threat stated, “There’s a bomb in here and it will go off 11-11-08 or sooner,” according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
Because the threat was considered “low level,” it was decided not to evacuate the building or cancel classes for the day, according to Kammer.
“Because of the low level of threat we don’t want to evacuate the building,” said Kammer on Friday. “If it was a higher level, we would.”
Students were dismissed at the regular time. A “visual search” of the restroom where the threat was found and the entire building was conducted by school staff and members of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department. Nothing suspicious was found, Kammer said.
Canine units were brought in to search the high school Friday night, according to sheriff’s Lt. Larry Perry, commander of the Oxford Twp. substation.
Kammer reported on Monday, Nov. 5 that nothing was found during the search. “Everything’s fine,” she said.
In addition to criminal charges, Blankenship could be financially liable for any overtime worked by sheriff’s personnel as a result of the threat.
“If he’s convicted, we will definitely seek (through the courts) full restitution for all of the costs that were incurred by us and any other agencies that assisted us,” said Undersheriff Mike McCabe. “It’s easily going to be several thousand dollars.”
Skilling confirmed that Blankenship was suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing.
A bomb threat was found written inside a sixth-grade girls restroom stall at the middle school on Oct. 26.
That threat also turned out to be a hoax.
Perry said they still have no leads on the middle school threat.
Two more bomb threats were made Nov. 6 (at OHS) and Nov. 8 (at OMS). See related story on-line.
“Haven’t heard anything,” he said. “They’re still pounding the bushes down there though.”