FARMINGTON — A student at Mt. Blue High School was expelled and faces a felony criminal charge in connection with a prank bomb threat made at the school earlier this month.

Andrew Coscia, 18, of Farmington, was summoned on a charge of terrorizing after police said he made a bomb threat at the school, according to Farmington police Deputy Chief Shane Cote. His court date is Feb. 24.

The 737 students at the high school in Farmington had to be evacuated and bused to alternate sites after the threat that Coscia is accused of making Dec. 9, Cote said, citing police reports.

The school board unanimously voted this week to expel an 18-year-old male student, who an investigation determined had written a note threatening that a bomb would go off that morning, Superintendent Michael Cormier said Thursday, referring questions about his identity to police because of privacy laws.

Cote confirmed Thursday that Coscia is the student who was expelled.

Police and school officials are also still following leads into two other similar bomb threats made at the high school since last month, which have triggered mandatory emergency measures that spend extra town money, Cormier said.

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“We don’t believe that he is linked to the other bomb threats,” he said.

Cormier said the series of bomb threats disrupted classes and wasted the town’s money and he hopes the serious punishments will discourage future threats.

The school board has also unanimously voted to expel a student at the high school for hindering the investigation into the first two bomb threats. The board’s vote was based on the investigation as well as the student’s history of repeated suspensions, according to the minutes of the board meeting two weeks ago.

School officials are working on calculating the emergency response cost to submit to law enforcement as part of the investigation, Cormier said.

Because of the threat this month, local police and fire departments responded to assist with the school’s emergency evacuation. A police dog trained to locate bombs was also driven from Augusta to search the building before it was cleared to reopen.

Many of the same steps were taken after the first two threats, which happened within a week of each other after a written bomb threat was discovered in a high school bathroom on Nov. 14.

Making a bomb threat is a felony when it causes the evacuation of a building. That level of a terrorizing charge is punishable by up to five years in prison along with fines, depending on the circumstances of the crime. A terrorizing charge can also be a misdemeanor with less severe punishments if the building is not evacuated, Cote said.

David Robinson — 861-9287
drobinson@centralmaine.com


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