BY JENN McDOWELL

A second bomb threat at Cawley Middle School on Wednesday, Sept. 27, has led Hooksett police to a student.

According to the school’s principal, Ron Pedro, the student wrote something on the wall of a boys bathroom, and two other students who knew of the incident told Pedro.

The student who wrote the message this time has not been connected to the first bomb scare on Friday, Sept. 21, which led to the entire school’s evacuation.

Hooksett police Capt. Paul Cecilio said this newest incident was apparently a copy-cat case.

“We haven’t ruled him out, but we’re pretty sure it’s not him,” said Cecilio on a possible link between the cases.

The school was not evacuated, Pedro said, because the message written this time was one word and was not a threat, per se.

“There was no direct threat to the school,” he said.

He added that he did not send letters home to parents explaining the incident, as he did with the first one.

“We’re afraid to let some information out that shouldn’t be out,” Pedro said.

Detectives Nick Pinardi and Chris Dupuis responded to Cawley at after 1 p.m., about 30 to 60 minutes after Pedro said the incident was reported to him.

Police said the student wrote the word “bomb” in pencil above a urinal in the bathroom and erased it before faculty or staff could see it.

Cecilio, who has a child in the school, said he would expect that the school would notify authorities as soon as something like this happens, and was concerned police weren’t notified sooner about the second incident.

“You have a crime, and by law, they’re supposed to report it to us,” Cecilio said, citing the Safe Schools law.

No charges have been filed against the student yet, but Cecilio said they would be once the investigation was completed.   Charging will get complicated, Cecilio said, because the suspect is a juvenile.

An adult committing the same crime would be charged with false public alarm, Cecilio said. The student’s charges will probably be similar, he said.

He added that the fact that the writing was erased will make it harder to move forward with the case.

“Some of the evidence was destroyed. It makes it tough to prosecute cases when you can’t provide the evidence,” Cecilio said.

Pedro said he personally has been checking bathrooms every hour on the hour since the first scare, and that other faculty members are doing the same.

Police and school district officials will discuss the issues and the exchange of information, as well as policies, at an upcoming meeting.

“We will be meeting with school department to make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the future,” Cecilio said.

Pedro said the student has owned up to his involvement and will face scholastic consequences. Usually, he added, such an act warrants suspension.

“The important thing is the student is taking responsibility for what he did,” Pedro said.