WICHITA, Kan.  -  Three Heights High School students could be expelled for the rest of the year after making a series of prank phone calls to 911 on Tuesday.
     Wichita Police, along with officers from Bel Aire, Kechi and Park City, responded to Stucky Middle School after receiving two phone calls from callers pleading for help.  One of the callers identified Stucky as where they were located.
     "Prank is probably the best way to describe this," said Wichita Police Lt. Doug Nolte. "They were trying to perfect the prank, if you will, by saying 'Don't do it that way, do it this way.'"
     Another student made a second call to 911 about 10 minutes after the first call, prompting the police response when he said he was at Stucky.  "When you have a school and you say someone needs help, that immediately is like yelling fire in a movie theater," Nolte said.
     Nolte explains that the students had stolen the cell phone from another student. They made the prank calls and then secretly returned the phone back to its owner. After tracking down the owner through caller ID at dispatch, officers met with the student, who said he noticed some other students rifling through his book bag.
     Police pulled those other students out of class and they began confessing to what they had done.  "We take 911 calls very seriously," Nolte said. "The dispatchers who take them do. The officers who respond to them do. And we realize there may be kids out there who think it's funny to watch what happens. I want to put to rest any rumors out there.  Don't prank call 911 and expect there not to be consequences, because there will be."
     USD 259 Spokesperson Susan Arensman said that the three students have been suspended pending a formal expulsion hearing.  Nolte says the teens could also face criminal charges from the district attorney's office.