PORT ANGELES — Charges against a 12-year-old girl accused of writing a threatening message on a Roosevelt Middle School lavatory wall resulted from the analysis of a handwriting expert.
But another student confessed to writing the message, and the mother of the girl who was charged says the girl didn’t do it.
The charged girl is scheduled to be arraigned in Clallam County juvenile court this morning.
Both girls are not identified because they are minors.
The message — the contents of which were not included in documents filed with Clallam juvenile court — was found on a girl’s restroom wall Oct. 12, days after a series of school shootings across the United States.
It’s the only time this year that police have been called to a school to investigate threatening graffiti, although it happened several times last year at Port Angeles High School and Choice Community School.
Court documents provide a one-sentence narrative of the crime, saying the charged girl “wrote a threatening message on the schools (sic) bathroom wall warning of an impending occurrence, knowing that the threat would likely cause alarm and evacuation of the building(s).”
No other explanation is given by Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective.
Clallam County Deputy Prosecutor Tracey L. Lassus said the girl was identified by a handwriting expert, but also said that another girl confessed to school officials that she wrote the threatening message.
That girl changed her story when her mother was called into the office, and then would not speak to investigators.
“We’re still looking into it,” Lassus said.
Public defender Suzanne Hayden is representing the girl and said she hopes the charges are dismissed.