BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FELICITY -- Police Chief Ray Hesler stood at the front door of Felicity-Franklin's elementary school early Thursday morning instead of taking his usual spot up the block directing traffic.
"I want to make people feel comfortable," he said, the day after uneasy parents pulled about 500 Felicity-Franklin students out of classes following rumors that one or more students planned to bring guns to school to settle a fight.
Chief Hesler and Clermont County sheriff's deputies investigated the rumor when it began spreading Tuesday evening. By about midnight, investigators determined it was not true. But the word had spread and parents kept children home Wednesday or picked them up early.
Absenteeism Thursday afternoon in Felicity-Franklin schools -- which form one complex over a three-block area for 1,350 students -- was about double a normal day: 279 students absent; 132 of them in grades kindergarten to fourth, said Superintendent Roger Hornsby. That's down from the 537 students out of class Wednesday, he said.
"I'm disappointed. I expected a lot more back," Mr. Hornsby said. "Yesterday's absence was excused. It's unexcused, from today on. I could empathize with parents yesterday because they heard a rumor and didn't know the facts. Today, they should know."
Thursday, as children hurried inside, a woman called through her open car window to the police chief: "Hey Ray, is it safe to bring the kids to school?"
"Yes, and it was safe yesterday," Chief Hesler answered.
Parents stopped to talk with Chief Hesler, walking away assured that he and deputies would stick close by during the school day. He understood parents' concerns, Chief Hesler said, but urged people to listen to facts from police and not to rumors.
Elsewhere on Thursday, New Richmond police responded to a high school freshman's alleged threat to shoot schoolmates on his bus by arresting him.
The boy, 15, was taken to juvenile detention on a menacing charge, said New Richmond Police Chief Landon Williams.
The student, who has been suspended from New Richmond High for the rest of the year, told the chief he was joking. But, "You have to take (threats) very seriously," said Chief Williams.
"If I catch drift of a kid making threats . . . he's definitely going to be arrested and taken to juvenile detention."
