Coelho Middle School Students Locked Out After Student Allegedly References 'Bomb'

Coelho Middle School students were locked out of the school Thursday morning, just two days after another student was charged with raping another student in the school. 

Thursday's lockout was ordered by Superintendent Pia Durkin after a student was overheard allegedly referencing a bomb while chatting with his friends in the school's library. 

The eighth-grade student was suspended until the end of the year, cannot attend his eighth-grade social and cannot participate in the eighth-grade graduation as a result of what he was overheard saying by a teacher. 

After Durkin was notified by school officials of the boy allegedly referencing a bomb, she went to the school and ordered a lockout and insisted the police be called. 

Attleboro Police Det. Sgt. Art Brillon said the police and fire departments responded to the call and that Tom Wellman, the school's D.A.R.E. officer, investigated the incident.

As a result, the teen will be summoned to juvenile court "for uttering a threat and disrupting a school assembly," Brillon said.  Brillon would not say whether the student actually threatened to use a bomb or blow up the school. 

"Because it involves a juvenile we are cautious to what information we release," Brillon said. "I cannot confirm nor deny what was said." The detective would only say, "he referenced a bomb." 

Excessive Punishment

The teen's family said they were devastated by what unfolded Thursday. His mother, Dina Hoyt, said her son was in the library talking with friends about the fire drill that occurred the day before and jokingly told his friends that he wondered what would happen next. 

Hoyt said her son admits saying the school would probably blow up next, but did not make any bomb threats to his friends or anyone at the school. Hoyt said her son's conversation with friends was taken out of context and blown out of proportion. 

Hoyt said her son is a "good boy" who was involved with the school's D.A.R.E. program, was never in trouble and had never been suspended.

"Even Officer Wellman said he feels terrible because he's such a good kid," she said. "My son is really upset and regrets even joking with his friends about it."

While she does not disagree with the school's administration explaining the severity of the words he chose to use and even taking away his ability to attend the social or suspending him for a day, she said suspending him for five days and not allowing him to attend his own graduation is excessive and devastating. 

The punishment was one thing, but the superintendent's behavior was even more shocking, according to Hoyt. 

"She said she would do whatever she had to do to have him charged," Hoyt said of Durkin. "She acted so unprofessional and was yelling at him even though she saw that I was distraught over the situation and that my son was upset."

"It is very shocking the whole thing and we are all really devastated by it," she said. "Even one of the officers heard Dr. Durkin say she wanted to make an example out of my son and said they thought the situation was being blown out of proportion and told me that it was just bad timing."

"I think it was blown out of proportion because of the other incidents at the school that happened recently," she said. "Mrs. Knox, the assistant principal and Mr. Sakarati, the principal, were sweethearts in how they handled everything. They even called to ask how he was doing."

Superintendent Durkin did not respond to requests for comment regarding the incident.