BOWLING GREEN - A Perrysburg man who plotted to take guns to Rossford High School and shoot people was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison.

Christopher Arrington, 18, pleaded guilty March 29 to making a terrorist threat, a third-degree felony. Citing Arrington's history of delinquency, Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey sentenced Arrington to four years, but gave him credit for the 3 1/2 months he has spent in the county jail.

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, Arrington delivered a brief apology.

"I would just like to say I know what I've done," he said. "I pushed it to the limit. I went overboard, and I'm sorry."

Rossford police arrested Arrington and a 16-year-old Rossford High School student in January after school administrators were told the two were talking about bringing guns to school and shooting people. References to the plot, planned for the 16-year-old's birthday on May 7, also were made on a MySpace Web site.

In March, the juvenile pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of delinquency in connection with inducing panic and last month was committed to the Ohio Department of Youth Services for at least six months and up to age 21 by Wood County Juvenile Court Judge David Woessner.

Assistant Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson said Arrington had indicated in a presentence report that the whole thing was a joke, but Mr. Dobson said that did not appear to be the truth.

Arrington and his accomplice had talked with their friends about the plot, he said, discussing what types of weapons they planned to buy or to steal if they could not purchase them, creating a map of the school, and indicating how they would enter it and where they would shoot people. Arrington even asked one student to videotape the drama.

"Mr. Arrington told the student, 'When the cops apprehend you for videotaping this, you just tell them we threatened to kill you if you didn't do it.'•" Mr. Dobson said. "These are just not the things that would be a joke."

He said Arrington was convicted as a juvenile for setting up a fake carjacking and for throwing a bag of feces at a sheriff's cruiser.

"We have absolutely no idea how far he is willing to go," Mr. Dobson said.

Mr. Dobson said the prosecutor's office would not be opposed to the court granting Arrington early release after two years if he were then placed in the SEARCH program at the Northwest Community Corrections Center. SEARCH is a structured, four to six-month treatment program for felony offenders.

Mr. Dobson also asked the court to order Arrington to pay $1,102 in restitution to Rossford High to compensate an assistant principal who spent 3 1/2 days investigating the alleged plot. But Steve Spitler, Arrington's attorney, objected, saying Ohio law does not make such compensation available to school districts.

Judge Kelsey took the matter under advisement and asked both sides to file briefs on the issue within two weeks.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-353-5972.

First Published May 15, 2007, 12:44 p.m.