Downers Grove South High School was business as usual Friday, Sept. 25, after threats were made against a specific ethnic group of students to happen that day.

A student has been charged after allegedly writing threatening messages in a girls’ bathroom and fire exit door Sept. 23 at Downers South, 1436 Norfolk St. The student is a juvenile and is being charged with a felony offense of making a false terrorist threat and another felony charge of disorderly conduct, according to Downers Grove police Sgt. Dave Bormann.

Downers South Principal Steve Bild said the message indicated something would happen to a certain ethnic group Friday, Sept. 25. Another message was a “danger to the school,” Community High School District 99 spokeswoman Faith Behr.

Bild said Friday’s classes went smoothly and “without a hitch.”

The student suspected is of the same ethnic group threatened, Bild said. The message was first seen at about 10:45 a.m. Sept. 23 and was not only written in a second floor girls’ bathroom but also on a fire exit door, Bild said.

The messages was reported by several students and staff members, who reported it to the school deans, Behr said. With the messages being written in erasable marker, Bild said it was washed off after pictures were taken of them.

“We went to the cameras and immediately saw that the student we believed to do this tried to cover their face while leaving the building,” Bild said.

The staff identified the student, opened the suspected student’s locker for a handwriting sample and contacted the family who then brought the student back to school that afternoon, Bild said.

The student was questioned and taken into custody by a Downers Grove police officer working at the school. According to Bild, the student confessed to writing the threats.

The district sent out an e-mail about the incident to the community via their newly launched E-News updates.

“The e-mail blast was appreciated so many people got that and knew it happened and was contained,” Bild said.

According to Bormann, the student was charged and the case will go through juvenile court system.