GRIMES COUNTY, TX- Law enforcement evacuated Anderson-Shiro Jr./Sr. High School around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday because of a bomb threat. Confused students were ushered outside when DPS Troopers arrived, and they remained safely away from the building until it could be searched and cleared.

This incident occurred a day after Tarkington High School in Liberty County was evacuated for the same reason. Before the end of the school day Monday, the student believed responsible for the threat was charged with a state jail felony. The crime is technically a federal offense.

Tex. Penal Code Section 42.06 provides that “a person commits an offense if he knowingly initiates, communicates or circulates a report of a present, past, or future bombing, fire, offense, or other emergency that he knows is false or baseless.” A false report made to a college or university is a state jail felony.

Here are a few examples of serious threats that the FBI and their partners have investigated (from fbi.gov):

• Two young men in Kentucky created a social media account in someone else’s name and used it to make threats against a public school, which police investigated and determined to be a hoax. An 18-year-old was sentenced to 21 months in prison and a 19-year-old was sentenced to 27 months.
• A young man in Texas used social media and a phone to issue threats against schools in Minnesota. He also called in fake hostage situations, known as “swatting.” He was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. He was 19 at the time of sentencing.
• A 21-year-old South Carolina man was sentenced to one year in federal prison after he sent text messages claiming there was a bomb in the parking lot of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the state.
• An 18-year-old North Carolina man was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay restitution after he broadcast himself on the Internet calling in bomb threats to various public places, including schools, colleges, and FBI offices.