Violent messages unnerve 2 schools

WINTHROP -- Educators in this North Shore town tried to calm parents and staff at Winthrop High School yesterday after a freshman at the school was arrested for allegedly compiling a ''hate list" and threatening other students.

The stunning news unfolded in Winthrop as authorities in Northborough began investigating a possible threat that was planned for today at Algonquin Regional High School.

School officials there declined to comment yesterday, but police said the investigation began after a violent message was found at the school last week. Police would not elaborate on the message's location or content, but said it did not target a specific individual. Still, as a precaution, police planned to send more officers to Algonquin this morning.

No suspect was named in Northborough, and in Winthrop, the student was not identified because he is a juvenile.

Winthrop school officials mobilized yesterday to inform parents and faculty members about threats the student made verbally, posted on his MySpace.com account, and scrawled in notebooks found later at his home.

None of the written threats directly targeted the Winthrop school community, Superintendent Steven Jenkins said, but the incident was enough to shake parents in the oceanside town of 18,000 just north of Boston, where yesterday children played baseball games, adults hit the links at a nearby course, and airplanes thundered overhead on their approach to Logan International Airport.

After a 90-minute, closed-door meeting with school officials and police, about 150 grim-faced parents filed out of the school. Some had tears in their eyes. Many declined to speak with reporters.

School officials said they planned to address students about the incident this morning in a school assembly.

''This is Winthrop, nothing happens here," Jenn Marley, a 16-year-old sophomore, said yesterday. ''That's why this is so creepy."

The student was taken into custody Friday after allegedly making threats against a number of students and at least one adult, Winthrop police said. The student, who had been in another school district until September, had earlier been in an ''altercation" and made verbal threats to another student, Jenkins said.

After the altercation, several students asked school officials to review the student's Web page on MySpace.com. The site has been taken down, but students who saw it say it included a photo of a person wearing a mask and a vest and carrying a gun in each hand.

The page, along with notebooks found at the student's home, included a ''hate list" with names of those he did not get along with, Jenkins said. Jenkins did not say whose names were on that list, but added that those listed were not from Winthrop.

''There was enough indication, with evidence and materials found at the house that said, 'There's something beyond reasonable here, even if it's not illegal right now,' " Jenkins told reporters yesterday outside the school. ''Taking all of the pieces together, there's something that's beyond reason."

MySpace.com is a social networking website with 65 million members, many of them teenagers who can create their own Web pages, with photos, journal entries, and other information they want to broadcast.

Public schools throughout Massachusetts have been warning parents and students about using the site, and law enforcement officials have started paying more attention to what teenagers say on it.

School officials have been more cautious since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Locally, several students are being prosecuted for an alleged 2004 plot against Marshfield High School.

In Winthrop, police said ''significant evidence" was discovered that convinced them that the threats were credible, but they gave no details and did not elaborate yesterday.

There were no guns found at the youth's home, said David Procopio, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

''I feel absolutely safe sending my junior to school tomorrow," said Wendy Millar-Page, who was interviewed outside the school after yesterday's meeting. ''It made me nervous and sacred, and it's a little unsettling, [but] I'm sending my child with full confidence."

It was unclear yesterday whether the student would be charged, but Jenkins said school officials plan to hold a suspension hearing.

The student was hospitalized Saturday for an unspecified medical evaluation, Procopio said.

''I think people are thankful that the police and superintendent are handling this properly," parent David Pevear said after the meeting.

Globe correspondent Courtney Gross contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.