For the second time this month, an Urbana City School building was locked down when a written threat was found inside the building late Friday morning.
Urbana Local Intermediate School, 2468 State Route 54, was evacuated after a bomb threat was found scrawled on a boys' bathroom wall. Staff alerted Champaign County Sheriff Matt Melvin, who placed the school on lock-down shortly after 11 am. The students were moved to the nearby Urbana Township building without incident.
Melvin went on to report that a 12-year-old boy admitted to writing the message, which the boy said was intended as a hoax. The student could face charges of inducing panic and disrupting public services. He was released to a guardian.
A K-9 unit was provided by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to assist in the search, but no threats were found.
This is the second incident of its kind at an Urbana school within the past several weeks. A similar message was found earlier this month, again in a boys' bathroom, at Urbana High School, triggering a lock-down at that school. No threat was found at the time, and an 18-year-old student was taken into custody following the incident.
