Police in three Lancaster County jurisdictions Wednesday filed charges against a 15-year-old male they say is responsible for threats made at four local schools in mid-September. The juvenile will be prosecuted in juvenile court, so police and the district attorney cannot release the teen’s identity.

The teen is charged with counts of making terroristic threats, causing false alarm, and making threats to use weapons of mass destruction.

Police and District Attorney Craig Stedman are confident that the individual arrested allegedly acted alone in the threats incidents.

All of the threats allegedly were allegedly made via electronic communication through a citizen tip line. The tip line is connected with Lancaster County-Wide Communications, which dispatches emergency 9-1-1 incidents for the county.

The juvenile is alleged to have made threats between September 10 and September 15 at four Lancaster County schools: Lampeter-Strasburg High School, Conestoga Valley High School, McCaskey, and Smoketown Elementary School.

In each case, police responded to the schools and investigated the threats. The district attorney’s office and investigators do not believe that the juvenile had the means to carry out the threats.

A statement released this afternoon by the district attorney’s office characterized the threats as “’extremely disturbing’ in nature, involving claims to harm children and police officers.” Patterns in the ongoing threats led police to believe that one individual was responsible for the threats.

Police interviewed the juvenile at the office of District Attorney Craig Stedman, where the the teen  reportedly admitted to allegedly making the threats. The teen’s parents have been extremely cooperative with the authorities, notes the statement from the district attorney.

Detectives Jere Schuler (West Lampeter police), Christopher Jones (East Lampeter) and Bill Hickey (Lancaster city) filed the charges. The location of the juvenile will not be disclosed by either police or the district attorney, as it is prohibited by juvenile law. The juvenile probation department and a judge will determine whether the juvenile is detained and/or conditions of release.

This juvenile is not charged in the threats at Donegal, Ephrata, and Cocalico School Districts. Police in those jurisdictions have filed charges regarding those separate incidents.