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Three high school seniors in Illinois vandalized their school by breaking windows and glass doors, and leaving bomb threats, school officials allege.
Marlene Brady, schools superintendent in Girard, Ill., said the three boys, who are unidentified, will be suspended pending an expulsion hearing, and will face criminal charges, the State Journal-Register reported Friday.
Though the youths allegedly have confessed to the vandalism, a Girard police spokesman said no arrests had been made.
Monday morning, Girard janitors found the smashed 32 windows and three glass doors, and two bombs threats with the words "Boom! 11-17-09," one spray-painted on a shed and the other pieced with cut-out magazine letters on a piece of cardboard.
The schools were shut down Monday and Tuesday during investigation of the bomb threats. Another school, in Virden, Ill., canceled classes Tuesday after discovering what are believed to be copycat threats scrawled in bathroom stalls, the newspaper said.
The boys face felony charges, the severity of which will depend on the dollar value of the damage. The least serious felony, for damage of $500 or less, the punishment is up to three years in prison.
Brady said the cost of the glass replacement alone is about $9,000.
"I can say with a great amount of certainty that there's never been anything this serious in any of their pasts," Brady said of the three boys. "I believe they saw (the threats) as a hoax."
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