Amid an increase in school threats, officials calling for harsher consequences - "There has to be some price paid."
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Woodland Hills High School was the target of threats two times last week. Now Allegheny County police arrested and charged a man they believe is responsible.
Ed Donovan is involved in education, as a longtime member of the Wilkinsburg School Board, and he cannot comprehend why people continue to make threats against local schools.
"They're expensive, and they disrupt the whole day, and the kids don't learn anything that day," Donovan said. "I think if there are kids making the threats, there's a reason behind that, and so we ought to work with those kids to try to find out what that is."
In Woodland Hills, police said the person behind recent threats was an adult, 25-year-old Dante Meadows of Braddock.
They arrested and charged him with threats to use weapons of mass destruction, terroristic threats, and harassment, for threatening the high school.
According to the criminal complaint, Meadows first called the district on September 9, saying he was going to be there soon and shoot more than a dozen students. The threats forced the district to have a virtual learning day.
Police said then on September 12, Meadows did the same, threatening a shooting, and saying he was going to show up with a bomb.
Through a search warrant, investigators pinned Meadows to the crimes, by matching up phone numbers and IP addresses, along with phone logs and call times.
No word on whether Meadows has a connection to the district.
In the meantime, Donovan feels those accused of these kinds of incidents, need to face consequences.
"There has to be some price paid for threatening a building that's full of defenseless kids, and in our state, defenseless teachers because they're not armed either," Donovan said.
Meadows remains in Allegheny County Jail after a judge denied bail. His preliminary hearing is set for October 1.
KDKA reached out to the Woodland Hills superintendent for comment but has not heard back at this time.
