Two Years of School Bomb Threats in South-Central Ohio: a Timeline, and What Families Can Still Do

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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Monday’s closure at Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center is the latest in a long run of school threats across south-central Ohio. Heritage Headlines has covered several of those disruptions as they happened. A review of district statements and law enforcement releases from October 2024 through Oct. 5, 2026, shows the heaviest confirmed cluster at Huntington Local Schools in Ross County, then a second wave this fall in Pike County, Chillicothe, and at Pickaway-Ross.

This is not an official tally. Some districts announced a threat without publishing the date. Some counts in later updates do not match the first announcement. Where those conflicts exist, they are noted below. No explosive device has been reported found in any of the cases listed here.

What the record shows

Huntington is the outlier. Sheriff and district updates put the series at 10 threats by April 7, 2026, after a start in mid-January. Eight of those dates are public. The other two were counted by the district but not dated in the releases reviewed for this story.

Elsewhere, confirmed bomb-threat responses in this window include Eastern Local in Pike County, a string of threats at Pike County Career Technology Center, a Sept. 17 wave that hit Waverly, Pike County CTC, and Piketon, a Sept. 2 threat at Chillicothe High School and Chillicothe Middle School, and Monday’s threats at both Pickaway-Ross campuses. Scioto County has two cases in which someone was actually charged.

Union-Scioto has dealt with student threat reports. Those incidents are listed separately because officials did not describe them as bomb threats.

Timeline

Aug. 29, 2024, Unioto Middle School, Ross County. Deputies interviewed students after a report of a threat to school safety. The district said one student was taken into custody. Officials did not describe the report as a bomb threat and did not release further details.

Sept. 5, 2025, Minford and Wheelersburg, Scioto County. The FBI called the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office about bomb threats posted on Facebook against both districts. Deputies said the threats were traced to Brian Austin Sampson, 26, of Wheelersburg, who was arrested and charged with terroristic threats, a second-degree felony, and inducing panic, a third-degree felony. The sheriff’s office said he admitted the allegations were fabricated. He was held on a $30,000 bond.

Jan. 13, 2026, Huntington High School, Ross County. The Ross County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call at about 11:15 a.m. stating there was a bomb in the building. Students were evacuated and bused home, with pickup at the Little League football field on Blain Highway. Deputies and explosives-detection K-9s found no explosives. Superintendent Pete Ruby said authorities did not find a credible threat. This is the first dated threat in the series. A later district count said the series began Jan. 19. Both dates appear in public updates.

Feb. 2, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The sheriff’s office said a bomb threat came in around 5 a.m. Classes were canceled. The district later said the Ross County Sheriff’s Office and the Columbus Fire Department Bomb Squad cleared the campus. Classes were set to resume the next day.

Feb. 4, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The district said the sheriff’s office reported another threat and closed school. The district called it the third threat in less than a month and said safety had to take precedence.

Feb. 5, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. Another threat prompted a closure decision, then the district remained open after the building was checked the night of Feb. 4 and again that morning. The district said no one had entered overnight. It also said Homeland Security had deployed a SkyWatch tower, and that the FBI had begun work on warrants to trace the calls.

Feb. 10, 2026. The sheriff’s office released recordings of calls threatening Huntington since Jan. 13. One caller claimed a bomb in a rented truck. Another claimed three bombs inside the school. Another mentioned a bomb and a gun. The sheriff said local, state, and federal agencies were involved.

Feb. 25, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The sheriff’s office said this was another threat in the series, and that six other threats had followed the Jan. 13 call. The next day, Sheriff George Lavender Jr. said all of the threats had been investigated and found non-credible. He said his office had requested FBI help early, and that investigators and the FBI were working daily to find the caller. Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, at 740-773-8477. The sheriff also announced a heavier law enforcement presence around Ross County schools.

Feb. 26 to Feb. 27, 2026. By this point, public updates put the Huntington total at seven since mid-January. Each had been searched and ruled not credible. The district said a watch tower would stay in place, buildings would get nightly walkthroughs, and police presence would increase during the school day.

March 2, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The district said the sheriff’s office notified it of another automated threat while school was already closed for weather. The district called it the eighth since Jan. 13.

March 20, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The district said another threat had been received and called it the ninth. Law enforcement and K-9 units cleared the campus. School stayed on a normal schedule. A public suspect still had not been named.

April 7, 2026, Huntington Local Schools. The district said it had received a tenth threat. Law enforcement and K-9s cleared the campus, and school stayed in session. The update counted the series from Jan. 19, which conflicts with the Jan. 13 evacuation. No arrest had been announced.

April 24, 2026, Northwest High School, Lucasville, Scioto County. The sheriff’s office said Star Jackson, 18, of Lucasville, was arrested after allegedly saying on a school bus that she would bring a bomb to school and “get rid of the school and the people in it.” Two students told the bus driver. She was charged with inducing panic, a first-degree misdemeanor, and making terroristic threats, a third-degree felony, and held on an $11,000 bond. This was a spoken threat reported by students, not a hoax call to dispatch. A search of her belongings found no weapon or explosive.

May 1, 2026, Eastern Local School District, Beaver, Pike County. Sheriff Tracy D. Evans said Eastern Schools reported a bomb threat that morning. Students and staff were moved to the track and football field. State Fire Marshal K-9s found no explosives. Superintendent Bowman dismissed school at noon. No arrest was announced. The sheriff’s office and the Southern Ohio Organized and Major Crimes Task Force were investigating.

Sept. 2, 2026, Chillicothe High School and Chillicothe Middle School. Chillicothe Police Capt. Michael A.D. Short said the schools received a bomb threat that morning. He said police did not believe it was credible, a safety check found nothing, and the schools stayed open. The threat was left under investigation. This is the only Chillicothe city-schools bomb threat with a public date in the materials reviewed. Families have described more than one. A second date was not in the releases used for this timeline.

Sept. 2, 2026, Unioto High School. Superintendent Matt Thornsberry told families the district had a report of a student making threats, contacted law enforcement and the student’s family, and “addressed and removed any potential threat.” He said there was no credible threat as of that night, and that extra officers would be in the buildings the next day. He asked families to report concerns immediately. The message did not call it a bomb threat.

Sept. 3 to Sept. 9, 2026, Pike County Career Technology Center, Piketon. The school said it received another bomb threat on the morning of Sept. 4, after an earlier threat had already forced a delayed schedule. By Sept. 9, the school said multiple threats had come in over several days, including after bus drop-off and homeroom. It said the Pike County Sheriff’s Office, Piketon Police, and other agencies had investigated, and that law enforcement had determined the threats were hoaxes. No intrusion was found. The school said it has more than 50 cameras and had officers on site overnight and before students arrived.

Sept. 17 and Sept. 18, 2026, Waverly, Pike County CTC, and Piketon. Waverly City Schools said a bomb threat forced all schools to close on Thursday, Sept. 17. Waverly said police and administrators gave an all-clear later that afternoon. The district said another threat on Friday morning put schools in lockdown. A sweep found nothing, and classes resumed.

Oct. 5, 2026, Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center, Chillicothe. Pickaway-Ross Administration said bomb threats that morning affected the main campus at 895 Crouse Chapel Road and the Adult Education campus at 1410 Industrial Drive. The district said the threats were much like others received at schools in the area, and that both buildings were closed so law enforcement could finish sweeps. No arrest had been announced by Monday morning, and the district had not said the buildings were cleared. This is the confirmed Pickaway-Ross bomb-threat closure in the public record reviewed for this story.

Who investigates

The first call still belongs to local law enforcement. In Ross County that has been the sheriff’s office, and in Chillicothe the city police department. Pike County cases have involved the sheriff, Waverly police, and Piketon police. School resource officers and district administrators are usually the ones who lock down, evacuate, or cancel class.

Sweeps are often shared. Huntington’s Feb. 2 search included the Columbus Fire Department Bomb Squad. Eastern Local’s May 1 search used K-9s from the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Pike County CTC has described overnight monitoring with the sheriff and local police.

The FBI is not the agency that clears the building. It is the agency that can trace a call, a spoofed number, or an internet post, especially when the same caller hits more than one district or the call originates out of state. On the Huntington series, the sheriff said he requested FBI help early, and the district said the FBI was seeking warrants to trace the calls. On the Scioto County Facebook threats, the FBI called the sheriff. Federal prosecutors can also charge hoax bomb threats. A May 2026 case out of the Northern District of Ohio, unrelated to these local schools, charged an Oregon man after hoax calls to at least 17 Ohio high schools. That case shows the federal lane. It is not a south-central Ohio arrest.

Ohio can charge these cases without the FBI. Knowingly circulating a false report of an impending explosion, when it causes an evacuation or serious public alarm and the place is a school, is inducing panic, a second-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code 2917.31. Separate charges for making terroristic threats have already been used in Scioto County.

What parents can do

Report it once, to the people who can act on it. The Safer Ohio School Tip Line, 844-723-3764, takes anonymous calls and texts around the clock and routes them to school officials and law enforcement. Immediate danger still goes to 911. Non-emergency tips can go to the local sheriff or police department, to FBI tips at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-225-5324, and, for the Huntington series, to Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers at 740-773-8477. Crime Stoppers offered $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in that case.

If a student hears a threat on a bus, in a group chat, or on social media, a screenshot and a report to a principal or deputy is more useful than a repost. Forwarding an unverified threat spreads the panic the caller wants. Districts have asked families to follow the all-call for dismissal and pickup, and to stay away from a building while a sweep is underway.

What the community can ask

Families can ask for a public status report, not a rumor. Reasonable questions for a sheriff, a police chief, or a school board are whether each case is still open, whether the FBI is still assisting, whether call-tracing warrants were obtained, and whether any suspect has been identified. They can ask why some cases produced charges within a day and others, had produced no public arrest months later. They can ask counties to compare recordings so a serial caller is not investigated as 10 separate pranks.

They can also ask for the cost. Lost class days, bomb-squad callouts, and overnight patrols are public expenses. An after action count of missed instructional days would tell parents what these calls have actually taken.

None of that requires naming a suspect before charges. It does require the agencies already on these cases to say, in public, what they know and what they still do not.

Next in Pickaway County: Marshalls sets an Oct. 29 opening on Summit Avenue in Circleville

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