A 13-year-old White Oak Middle School student will remain in juvenile detention after being charged with felony inducing panic and disorderly conduct over a social media post threatening to shoot up Colerain High School. The teen appeared in Hamilton County juvenile court Wednesday, where a magistrate ordered him held despite pleas from his family to let him go home.
According to court documents cited by the Cincinnati Enquirer, the student threatened to shoot up Colerain High School on October 7, and had made a separate firearm-related threat on September 23. One post attributed to the teen read, “I'm going to enjoy killing everyone tomorrow then killing myself.” Hamilton County Juvenile Court Magistrate Tracey Hill ordered the teen detained, citing the seriousness of the charges, and moved his next hearing to October 19.
Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Jillian McGraw told the court the teen had previously been expelled from school for threatening to shoot someone, per the same account. The teen's lawyer countered that the student denies the current charges and has never had any prior contact with the court system. The lawyer argued the teen could get mental health assistance more easily outside the county's youth detention center.
Family Says Bullying, Not Malice, Drove the Post
The teen's family told the court he was being bullied at school and that the school system has been unable to stop it, according to the same report. Relatives pointed to his academic awards and his history of helping other students as evidence of his character. His stepmother said the threat was very out of character for him and called the incident a possible wake-up call.
She offered to pay his bond and said she did not want him detained, fearing that time in detention would change him. Hill said detention could be reconsidered at the next hearing but that the teen would stay held for now because of the severity of the allegations. The family said they are taking steps to get him into therapy.
Why Ohio Treats School Threats as Felonies
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2917.31, inducing panic by initiating or circulating false reports of violence or catastrophe against a school is classified as a second-degree felony, according to the Ohio General Assembly. That statutory framework explains why prosecutors pursued felony charges rather than treating the social media post as a minor disciplinary matter.
White Oak Middle School and Colerain High School both fall under the Northwest Local School District. The district has weathered repeated threat scares in recent years. In May 2024, bomb threats targeting Colerain High School, Northwest High School, and White Oak Middle School forced evacuations and early dismissals while law enforcement swept the buildings with bomb-sniffing dogs, per The Mirror US.
The district listed critical incident training on July 26, 2024.
Statewide Patterns in Juvenile Threat Cases
Hamilton County's Juvenile Court Youth Center operates under directives that require fingerprinting and photographing any juvenile held on felony charges, including inducing panic, according to the City of Cincinnati.
The case echoes other recent prosecutions in Ohio and beyond. Hoodline previously reported that a 9-year-old charged for inducing panic in Lorain County was referred to juvenile court after the FBI and local sheriff's deputies traced bomb threats against two schools to a fake account the child created. Parents in that case were not charged.
The White Oak teen remains in Hamilton County detention, with his next hearing set for October 19, when Hill has said detention could be reconsidered.
