No evidence cited of wider school plot

MARSHFIELD -- The town's school superintendent said yesterday that police have offered no evidence that other students were involved in an alleged murderous plot at the high school, despite assertions by the father of the student charged that his son is innocent and that others had planned the attack.

The Marshfield High junior being held on charges that he intended to stage a Columbine-style massacre at his school appears to be the only student police believe was involved, Superintendent Thomas Kelley said.

Kelley and law enforcement officials confirmed yesterday that a grand jury has been empaneled and is investigating the 16-year-old, raising the possibility that he could be charged as an adult.

The suspect was suspended after he was arrested on Sept. 17. No disciplinary action has been taken against any other student, Kelley said.

''Had there been more involved, we would have taken action against others, and there would have been more arrests," Kelley said.

The 16-year-old's father, Ben Kerns of Marshfield, has identified the suspect as Tobin Kerns.

Police would not discuss the investigation yesterday. On Wednesday, police said Tobin Kerns was arrested Sept. 17 after authorities learned that he planned to kill eight students and faculty members on April 20, the anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Two of those allegedly targeted were Austin Giles, a senior football player, and David McGrath, who graduated last year. The other six on a written list were assistant principals Cheryl O'Brien and Austin Barry; physical education teacher Carol Anderson; police resource officers Helen Gray and Bob Quigley; and former principal Peter Deftos, according to a school official who asked not to be identified.

A day after learning that a massive school attack may have been plotted and averted, the town of Marshfield was a bit off-balance yesterday. Students didn't avoid school -- attendance was about average, said Marshfield High School principal Robert Keuther -- and though they may have been ''a little more anxious" than usual, not many took advantage of the counseling offered.

In homerooms, students saw a videotaped message from Keuther, who asked them to ''create a climate of respect and responsibility."

Responding to some parents' complaints that school officials should have alerted them sooner to the actions taken last month, Keuther told reporters there was no ''inherent threat."

''If we believed our high school wasn't a safe place, we wouldn't open the school," he said. ''But we absolutely believe it is."

Students who heard of the alleged plot tipped off Marshfield police resource officers assigned to the school, a school official said.

Police have said Kerns exploded a homemade bomb, allegedly in practice for the attack, and that detectives who searched his home last month found detailed plans of the school, which included padlocking certain exits. He was charged in Juvenile Court Sept. 20 with eight counts of threatening to commit a crime, two counts of promoting anarchy, and one count of attempt to commit murder.

Kerns was released on bail briefly and then taken back into custody and held without bail for 90 days after being found to be a danger to the community at a Sept. 30 hearing.

A 16-year-old must initially be charged as a juvenile, but a prosecutor can go to a grand jury and seek adult charges. If Kerns is indicted as a youthful offender, he would be rearraigned, his records would be unsealed, and he could be tried as an adult.

Ben Kerns said his son had associated with three male friends from school earlier this year and that the group may have discussed plans for a violent act, but he said he didn't think the youths would have carried it out. Ben Kerns has maintained that his son was framed by a former friend, who lived with the Kerns family for a time, after a dispute over a girl. The Globe is withholding that youth's identity because the youth has not been charged.

Kerns also pointed out that authorities recovered no guns for the alleged attack plan. Police, however, say they found a shopping list for weapons.

Nikki Keating, 17, a friend of Toby Kerns, said the friend identified by Kerns's father dressed as a Columbine shooter for Halloween last year and had turned Kerns in rather than get caught himself.

''He thought that Toby would rat him out," she said. ''He was afraid he'd be the one to get into trouble."

In response to Ben Kerns's statement that another student set up his son, Kelley said: ''Every parent should be an advocate for their child, no matter how serious their problem, because they support them and love them. They may have a perspective that is not objective, based on their love for that child. That's how I view it."

Kerns said his son was treated this summer at McLean Southeast, an adolescent acute residential treatment facility in Brockton for psychological abuse he suffered when he was younger.

Before arriving at Marshfield High School in 2001, Toby Kerns had a run-in with police in Washington state.

Scott Anderson -- a police detective in Bainbridge Island, Wash., where Toby Kerns spent most of his early childhood -- said the youth was involved in ''a couple of incidents" as an adolescent. Anderson declined to give details, however, because Kerns is a juvenile. Told of the nature of the charges Kerns now faces, he said, ''It might be worthwhile for the prosecutor to contact us."

When asked if the episodes involved threats, Anderson said, ''It's along those lines." He added, however, that the allegations were ultimately ''determined to be unfounded."

Ben Kerns said he didn't recall police questioning his son in Washington. He said his son had ''a little trouble at school" involving something he voiced in anger.

Kerns and three friends in Marshfield called themselves NBK, for ''Natural Born Killers." One senior, whose best friend, Austin Giles, was on the hit list authorities allegedly recovered, said members of the group wore dark clothes and shaved their heads earlier this year.

''They always had a problem with authority," said Phil Lord, 17. ''They liked to pick fights with teachers."

In Marshfield yesterday, some residents said they doubted that Kerns could have carried out such a complex plan alone and said they wished they had been alerted earlier to the threat.

''I think the kid is being set up a little bit," said Pat Connell of Marshfield. ''I think they had to have enough evidence to arrest him, but if it were that serious, they should have let everyone know."

But many others said they thought the police and school officials acted responsibly, even admirably, and expressed overwhelming relief.''My first reaction was, 'If it happened in September, why are we hearing about it now?' " said Michael Lawlor, 42, a self-employed computer consultant in Marshfield who has two children, 6 and 4. But he said that later, he came to believe that the police acted cautiously. ''I'm sure they had to gather all the evidence and make sure they have what they have," he said.

At school yesterday morning, high school students loped to class in Red Sox jerseys, as if it were any other day; middle schoolers streamed from buses, fascinated by the presence of television vans. ''Did you hear about the bomb threat?" one boy in a blue-hooded sweatshirt asked his friends, as if he were setting up a joke. ''I wouldn't want to be in that high school," another told his friends.

Marshfield -- a town of 25,500 that borders the wealthier communities of Duxbury, Norwell, and Scituate -- suddenly finds itself blinking at its own reflection in the national camera. In the sedate, waterfront suburb of broad, sunsplashed lawns and wide porches draped with American flags, more than one resident asserted yesterday that nothing much ever happens. But some residents expressed a tone of resignation: It would be naive to believe something tragic couldn't happen here.

''Did Columbine think it was going to happen? No. No one does. Everyone thinks their town is mostly safe, especially in the suburbs, you think you're safe from most violence," said Jeanne McDonough-Jarvis, a mother of three.

Patricia Hartley, a mother of two, tried to calm her freshman daughter's nerves yesterday morning by reminding her of the saddening reality: ''Even though it happened here in Marshfield, it could happen anywhere."

Jenn Abelson, Suzanne Smalley, Emily Sweeney, and Patricia Wen of the Globe staff contributed to this report, along with Globe correspondent Robert Carroll.Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.