A North Carolina man has been charged with sending a threatening email to a Virginia Beach Catholic school that prompted leaders to cancel classes for two days last week.
Bobby Dale Francisco, 30, was arrested Friday and charged with threatening bodily harm in writing, according to a Virginia Beach police spokesman. The crime is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Francisco was taken into custody at his home in South Mills, North Carolina, by a Currituck County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, according to a post on the office’s Facebook page. He’s being held on a $1 million secured bond until he can be extradited to Virginia, the post said.
St. John the Apostle Catholic School, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, received the threat Wednesday and contacted police, according to notices sent to parents. In one notice, Superintendent of Catholic Schools Michael Riley said the threat had been made “in response to news coverage” related to a recent student disciplinary decision made by the school.
The Virginian-Pilot and other local media outlets reported last week about the school’s decision to suspend a sixth-grade student after he told the principal a classmate had shown him a bullet during class. While the boy, 11, was told he did the right thing by reporting the incident, he also was informed that he would be punished for not reporting it immediately, according to his mother, Rachel Wigand.
Wigand contacted attorney Tim Anderson in an effort to get the decision reversed, but the school refused.
After receiving the threat, school officials decided to cancel classes Thursday, then extended the closure to Friday while police continued to investigate.
The school sent another notice late Friday announcing that an arrest had been made, and that classes would resume Monday. The Virginian-Pilot reached out to Virginia Beach police for details that day, but a spokesperson didn’t provide the information until Monday.
“Public opinion overwhelmingly supports my client that St. John’s wrongfully suspended her son,” Anderson said Friday before the arrest had been announced. “They are in the hot seat for making a dumb decision and now want the parents of the school to be mad at my client because school is shut down.”
Riley, however, wrote to parents that school officials must take such threats seriously.
“This has been a trying week for so many in our school community, and the disruption of our school closure may only deepen the sense of unease,” he wrote in Friday’s letter.
“We also know that, for some families, the school’s recent disciplinary decision may call into question the strength of our security policies. Let me be clear — our culture of safety requires that students and adults alike report potential threats as quickly as they are made aware of them; in a real emergency, gaps in reporting time may have major consequences for school safety … As with any disciplinary matter, we treat this as an opportunity to learn and move forward.”
Riley went on to caution parents against discussing student disciplinary decisions with news reporters.
“This week’s past events also show that media coverage of private disciplinary matters can invite unwanted attention from persons outside our school community,” he wrote. “We ask for caution and good judgment before taking private matters into the public arena as it can result in unintended consequences that threaten the safety of the school.”
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
