Salesman finds school assault plan on Net

CLEVELAND, April 17 (UPI) -- An Ohio salesman who came across a student's online plans for a massacre at his "dumb hippie school" has alerted police, who arrested the student.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Jason Scherer, of suburban Broadview Heights, found the posting talking about duplicating the Columbine massacre in an Internet forum. He discovered the name of the school the student attended in Asheville, N.C., in a later posting.

Scherer consulted co-workers before deciding that the posting might not be a prank.

Once Scherer decided to notify authorities he had some trouble finding anyone. The school was closed for vacation, so he called police in Asheville.

Detective Tony Johnson told the newspaper that Scherer walked him through all the postings by the student, who used the screen name Py. Johnson was able to get the teen's name from the forum's Web master, and he was arrested.

The teenager was released to the custody of his parents and expelled from school.