A Coatesville Area High School senior called in a bomb threat that cleared the school, Chester County DA says

A 17-year-old student at Coatesville Area Senior High School called in a false bomb threat Monday that forced an evacuation at the school and sparked a series of brawls as tensions simmered, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The teen, whose name has not been released, has been charged with terroristic threats, threats to use weapons of mass destruction, and related crimes, according to Chester County District Attorney Deborah Ryan.

He sent a message to law enforcement early Monday, Ryan said, warning of a bombing at noon at the school.

“Someone has a boom bag full of glass bottles, THE GLASS BOTTLES ARE FULL OF GAS AND ALCOHOL AND a lot OF TISSUES he said he’s gonna light it off at 12,” the teen wrote, according to Ryan. No explosives were found after a search of the school.

Ryan said students and staff at the high school, which enrolls 1,400 students, had been “anxious and on high alert” since late September, when anonymous threats about planned attacks were reported to police. Monday’s incident was the 14th anonymous tip about the high school that investigators received through Safe2Say, an online reporting tool run by the state Attorney General’s Office.

A spokesperson for Ryan’s office said it’s unclear if the teen arrested Wednesday was responsible for all the threats made against the high school. An investigation into the full scope of the threats continues, she said.

“Threats of violence against schools — especially in this day and age — will never be tolerated,” Ryan said in a statement. “My office is determined to ensure the safety of students when they go to school every day.”

Monday’s evacuation led to fights among students as they waited outside, according to Caln Township Police Chief Joe Elias. The brawls grew out of control, and 37 area police departments responded to Caln’s countywide call for assistance. Parents, frustrated they were barred from campus, began fighting as well, Elias said.

While investigating the threat, federal agents assisting local law enforcement traced the IP address of the message to the WiFi network at Technical College High School in Downingtown, investigators said.

There, they found evidence that the student was at that school at the time the threat was made, and that his phone had been accessing the network.

» READ MORE: High school football game in Chester County canceled due to threats

As officers investigated that threat Monday, they received another saying there were weapons in both the senior high school and Coatesville Area Intermediate High School. The intermediate high school was put into lockdown, but no weapons were found after a search, according to a statement from Richard F. Dunlap Jr., interim superintendent of the Coatesville Area School District.

Both schools were closed Tuesday as a precaution as investigators continued to gather evidence on the threats.

Last week, similar threats about a potential shooting were made, and the senior high school was shut down Friday. And earlier this month, district officials canceled a football game due to what Dunlap called a “credible threat.”