NEW WAVERLY, Texas – Two New Waverly High School students were arrested this week after investigators said one of them created a hit list that included school staff and President Obama and the other called in a bomb threat.
New Waverly Independent School District superintendent Darol Hail said they first noticed threatening graffiti inside a boy's school bathroom.
"It was in one of the restrooms and from what little I saw of it, it was some Neo Nazi and hate everybody kind of stuff," said Hail.
Student Donovan Ragsdale said he got a closer look at the hateful writing.
"All I seen was that this school sucks etcetera, etcetera," said Ragsdale. "We're gonna blow it up or we're gonna kill so many people."
From there administrators launched an investigation that led them to 17-year-old Cody Buck. Sheriff's investigators said in Buck's backpack administrators found a list of names, which some are calling a hit list.
Walker County Sheriff's investigators said Buck may have been planning to hurt school officials, possibly students, even the President of the United States. The list, investigators said, even included Sesame Street characters and Michael Jackson.
"Some of the names had been marked off as dead," said Lt. Brad Fullwood. "Some of the names had been marked off as if he'd gotten over it and one of the names included Obama."
Deputies alerted the Secret Service who descended on the school at 9464 Highway 75 South, interviewing Buck as part of their own investigation. Walker County deputies went to Buck's house where his mother agreed to a search.
"Searching his bedroom, we found some prohibited weapons," said Fullwood. "Some brass knuckles, some switch blades, and placed him under arrest for the prohibited weapons and booked him into our jail."
Investigators said Buck claimed the threats and list were just a joke. However, Fullwood said they are taking it all very seriously and continue to investigate.
Less than 24 hours later, students and staff got a second scare. Walker County sheriff's deputies said an anonymous caller phoned the school's front office at 8 a.m. Thursday.
When a secretary answered, the caller threatened to blow up a bomb at the school, deputies said.
Bomb-sniffing dogs and ATF explosive officers were brought to the campus and hundreds inside the building were evacuated.
"They told us to move further to the tree line and then 20 minutes later, we had to walk through the woods to the weigh-in station by the freeway," student Morgan Hunter said.
About 90 minutes after the search, an all-clear signal was given. Search crews did not find any bombs in or around the school.
"There was absolutely nothing found that was out of place. At the point, everything was cleared. The students were brought back into the building," Hail said.
Several students told the principal they saw a fellow student make the threatening phone call while on campus. The juvenile was taken into custody.
"All of the information that we have in front of us does tell us that he will be the person that made the phone call," said a deputy.
The juvenile's name was not released.
"You know you hear about incidents at schools all the time and you never think that it could be your school," said Ragsdale. "It's scary. It really is."