Police are showing Wareham students that bomb threats are no joke. Nine false bomb threats have evacuated schools in recent weeks, and police have charged seven students, six of whom are juveniles, in the threats.

"We're not playing around with [bomb threats], and [offenders] are going to suffer consequences," said State Trooper Michael Peters.

The students have been charged with making false bomb threats, Wareham Police Public Information Officer Bill Fihlman said, adding that police are still investigating two of the threats and expect to make additional arrests.

Juveniles can be held in Department of Youth Services custody until age 21, and the District Attorney can decide to charge older juveniles as adults, Peters said.

The maximum punishment for making a false bomb threat is 20 years in a state prison and up to a $50,000 fine, Fihlman said.

After three bomb threats just last week at the middle school, administrators have declared that bathrooms will be locked and monitored, class time that has been missed due to the threats will need to be made up, and no student backpacks will be allowed in the building, middle school Principal Howard Gilmore wrote in an April 29 letter to families.

"We will be able to see what everybody brings in with them, which will help us with the threat assessment," Superintendent Barry Rabinovitch said of the no-backpack rule.

A number of the bomb threats, including the April 29 threat at the middle school, have been found written inside school bathrooms.

"[Bomb threats are] very serious and, the problem is, we cannot make assumptions that a threat is not credible," Peters said. False bomb threats also tie up emergency personnel, which could delay response to other, legitimate, emergencies, he said.

Peters and School Resource Officer Mary Walker said students have been helpful in providing information officers about the threats.

Peters said that all Wareham Schools will additionally hang posters advertising up to a $5,000 reward through the state's Arson Watch Reward Program for information that leads to an arrest in the bomb threats.