A 14-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with phoning one of two bomb threats to area schools Thursday, the fourth and fifth in three days.

The teen, a student at Warren Junior High School, was taken into custody at 3:20 p.m., Sgt. Tom Wilson said, and accused of making the call to that school at 12:31 p.m. He was in the Warren County Juvenile Detention Center.

Wilson said police were still questioning the student and his family about any possible involvement in Thursday’s other bomb threat, phoned 10 minutes later to Warren Central Intermediate and Sherman Avenue Elementary.

At the schools off U.S. 61 North, 1,255 students were evacuated.

&#8220We had some at lunch, some in class and some at recess at the time,” said Warren Central Intermediate Principal Michael Winters. &#8220I’ve been here four years and this is my first situation like this.”

Both junior high schools in the 9,000-student district are on Baldwyn Ferry Road near Mission 66.

Dr. James Price, superintendent with the Vicksburg Warren School District, said he thinks the &#8220copy-cat” threats, which are a felony, began as a way for students to enjoy time outside. Then, he said, it became &#8220the vogue thing to do.”

&#8220The children all get out of class, the weather’s pretty – it becomes sort of a novelty,” Price said. &#8220The problem is – it’s a felony. We take it very seriously. There are two young people sitting in jail right now. Their lives just changed.”

Some parents voiced displeasure with the Sherman Avenue school for not notifying parents of the situation sooner.

&#8220I’m very angry,” said Michelle Plaisance, waiting to pick up her daughter, Ashley, from Sherman after her fourth-grade class joined other students in re-entering the building following an hourlong wait. &#8220I feel they should have called parents and told us. I don’t care if we had to stand in the field with the children.”

Plaisance was waiting with two other mothers who expressed similar frustrations. Those parents asked not to be identified.

The forced evacuations of both schools Thursday continued a string of five bomb threats and two other evacuations in a week.

In the first two bomb threats, Warren Junior and Vicksburg High School, on Lee and Drummond streets, were evacuated Tuesday after threats were called in from a cell phone by a person described only as a male.

Crimestoppers, sponsored by the Hundred Club of Vicksburg, has offered a $500 reward for information leading to the person responsible in those calls, District Attorney Gil Martin said.

Price said he has been meeting with Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace and Vicksburg police Chief Tommy Moffett to change protocols and implement electronic devices to help authorities identify callers quickly.

&#8220We can’t prevent it, but this can speed up the identification process,” he said.

In the third threat, a 12-year-old girl was arrested Wednesday at 1 p.m. after a threat was phoned in to Warren Junior that morning.

State law protects the identity of juveniles when accused of crimes except for robberies and homicides when youths can be charged as adults. Hearings and dispositions in Youth Court are also sealed.

The district’s spring break begins March 13, but Price hopes to see the issue come to a halt before then. He believes that once people understand the seriousness of the crime the threats will cease.

&#8220What they don’t understand is they are looking at one year of expulsion, which means they lose all credit,” Price said. &#8220Then it’s up to a judge…the best-case scenario is youth court places them in a training school. One phone call changes their lives forever.”

Price said two bomb threats were made to Vicksburg High School within the same week two years ago, but the district didn’t have any calls last year. The students who placed the calls two years ago were caught and tried as adults.

&#8220These things run in cycles,” Price said. &#8220What they don’t understand is we’re going to catch you and then we’re going to prosecute you if you’re found guilty.”

This year’s evacuations began a week ago today when Warren Junior High School was cleared after a student set afire a roll of paper towels in a boys’ restroom. Another evacuation there came Monday after smoke was detected by school administrators. The source turned out to be an electrical problem.