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Police charge two youths in bomb scare calls at AMHS and CHS Amityville Village Police arrested two youths this week, charging them with calling in a total of four bomb scares, three to Amityville High School and one to Copiague High School, all within days of each other. The calls forced school officials to evacuate the buildings. In one of those incidents, the evacuations took place during last week's ice storm. Charged was Jeffrey Redding, 18, of 9 Francine Dr., North Massapequa. Redding is a student at Amityville High School, as is the second subject whose name was not released by police because of his age. Amityville School District principal Dr. Scott Andrews said that both students will be brought before a superintendent's hearing and will be disciplined. Other students who did not make the calls but may have been involved, may also be disciplined, said Andrews. In addition, the students face serious charges by police for falsely reporting an incident, a felony in the first degree. "Very often these young people think it is funny, but in this day when there are shootings and other things going on in schools, it is not fun and games and all incidents are going to be taken seriously," said Amityville Village Det. Bruce Pescitelli. "The police did a phenomenal job in apprehending these students," said Andrews. "And the students and staff were outstanding in the way they evacuated the school in an orderly fashion and cooperated in making sure that once they returned, classes resumed and we were able to get back to teaching." The calls were made to Amityville on Friday, Dec. 7, Wednesday, Dec. 12 and Thursday, Dec. 13. The call to Copiague High School was made on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 12:25 p.m. In Amityville, police responded to the high school immediately following the calls and the fire department remained on standby. Police assisted in the evacuations and secured the perimeter of the school. Following the call on Wednesday, which police said was made at a public phone booth at 293 Broadway, Pescitelli arrested Redding who admitted he made the calls to Amityville on Tuesday and Wednesday and the call to Copiague onWednesday. Redding was processed by Suffolk County First Precinct Police. The juvenile was arrested by APO Glenn Slack on Thursday, following the call he allegedly made from theSunoco gasoline station at 318 Merrick Road, Amityville. The youth was observed walking to the high school from that direction moments after the call was made, stopped by police for questioning and eventually charged in Thursday's incident. The call to Copiague was tracked by its telephone security system, providing police with the location at which it was made. Superintendent of Schools William Bolton said that the district received two false alarm calls, one right about dismissal time. In that incident, the students were simply put on buses and sent home. In the incident on Wednesday, Bolton said the evacuation of the building was orderly and that the district put into action a plan in place for several years. "We are still looking at the results of it and trying to find ways to do things better," said Bolton. "With all of the craziness in this workd today, we can't take anything at face value and have to be prepared to protect children first." "It is highly unusual to apprehend someone in these cases," explained Amityville Lt. Donald Dobby. "And it is even more unusual to apprehend them two times in two separate incidents. Our police did an outstanding job."
Andrews said that he is using the opportunity to impress upon the students the serious nature of these incidents. "Many of the students were frustrated by these disruptions but everyone worked together and wasted no time in getting us back to education."
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