The high school senior, who reportedly has never been in trouble before, was arrested last week after school surveillance cameras captured a picture of a man dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and wearing latex gloves, concealing a package and leaving without it. Believing that it contained explosives, officials evacuated the school and the Indiana State Police bomb squad was called in to dispose of the package. It turns out that the package, which was placed in the girls' bathroom, contained a blow-up doll. Police say that Morton admitted putting it there as a prank.
He's charged with felony criminal mischief, a hoax that the teen's family says doesn't rise to the level of criminal charges. School officials say that the prank cost them over $8,000, and prosecutors like Rush County's Phil Caviness don't see the humor: "In this post-Columbine world, that's what you get when these kinds of things happen."
