Arlington High teen arrested over false alarms

Updated: September 11, 2007 - 10:52 PM

Twice in five days, St. Paul police say, a 16-year-old Arlington High School student made bogus claims that a shooting was going to occur at the St. Paul school.

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Twice in five days, St. Paul police say, a 16-year-old Arlington High School student made bogus claims that a shooting was going to occur at the St. Paul school.

On Monday morning, he was arrested, and he could face charges of making terroristic threats.

The student didn't want to go to school, he reportedly told police.

The warnings -- presented in a letter found on the school's guidance desk Thursday and in a phone call to police Monday -- said only that a shooting would occur and not that the student himself would be doing the shooting, police spokesman Tom Walsh said.

Police investigated the student and determined "he had no means to carry out this threat," Walsh said.

The warnings caused no disruptions to school operations, but they prompted an increased police presence in and around the school Friday and Monday, said Howie Padilla, a St. Paul public schools spokesman. Such claims are not uncommon, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Ramsey County attorney's office said Tuesday afternoon that police had yet to submit the case to prosecutors.

ANTHONY LONETREE