BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Three students have been arrested for recent bomb threats at Bay Minette schools.

The most recent bomb threat came by phone at approximately 11 a.m. Thursday, March 1, to Baldwin County High School. An office worker at Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette took the call, which was a bomb threat, and the employee immediately notified administrators who put the school’s safety plan into action.

“Following the school’s safety plan, the school was evacuated, teachers and administrators helped search classrooms and school, which is standard procedure; if anyone can detect anything out of place, teachers and administrators can.” Said Bay Minette Police Chief Michael Rowland. “Officers arrived quickly and assisted the school with the safety plan. After sweeping the school, outside areas and buses, students were returned to class, and as a precaution, the school was placed into lockdown. School administrators and law enforcement gave the all-clear, and the precautionary lockdown was lifted and school resumed as normal about an hour after the call came in.”

According to the police chief, it wasn’t long before arrests were made.

“Within two hours, we made an arrest of two students who were in school at the time the call was made,” Rowland said. “We arrested Jerome Anthony Henry, 18, who used a cell phone belonging to a 17-year-old juvenile student. Henry further stated the juvenile had knowledge of the threat. Both subjects were arrested. Henry was transported to the county jail and the juvenile was transported to Bay Minette Police Department. The juvenile was released to his father. Both individuals have been charged with making terrorist threats — a felony.”

In addition to facing felony criminal charges, both individuals have been suspended and will face an expulsion hearing. The purpose of the threat was never stated by the two, according to investigators.

“Such criminal behavior will not be tolerated and there is no room in our schools for people who do such,” said Baldwin County Schools Superintendent Dr. Alan T. Lee.  “Students at Baldwin County High School are achieving in an exceptional way with our Digital Renaissance initiative and discipline referrals have dropped tremendously. I’m hearing great things from across the country about the success that

students and teachers are achieving at Baldwin County High School. We will not allow the selfish acts of a few tarnish this school’s great reputation.”

An arrest has also been made in connection with a bomb threat at Bay Minette Middle school on Feb. 1 at approximately 11 a.m. A janitor located a piece of paper in a sink in the seventh-grade girl’s bathroom with a bomb threat. The school’s safety plan was activated; Bay Minette Police responded. The decision was made to release school early. School dismissed a 2:30 p.m.

The day after the threat, a seventh-grade girl was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat. The student stated she wrote the note hoping to get a male student, her former boyfriend, in trouble. The student has been suspended and faces an expulsion hearing.

In both the middle and high threats, Lee said that a $500 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those individuals responsible for the threats. Those students who assisted will be kept anonymous. Rewards are paid based upon the conviction of those charged.

Lee praised the work of Bay Minette Police and students.

“I’d like to thank Detective Ray Dixon, Chief Rowland and the fine team at the Bay Minette Police Department for responding immediately and helping coordinate the safety plan with our administrators,” he said. “I would especially like to thank the students who came forward with information. When campus disaster has been averted across the country, it has been because students stepped up and reported suspicious activity to administrators and law enforcement.”