Grove City Area School District’s top administrator expressed sympathy for all those affected by two hit lists discovered in the district earlier this month.

“I can only imagine the shock, uneasiness and fear that students may have felt,” superintendent Robert Post said during a April 14 school board meeting. “I can also imagine how angry, hurt and afraid your parents may have felt.”

Post, who read from a prepared statement, said he wanted to give his “sincere sympathy and support to the students and faculty members whose names were on the terrible murder lists.”

“The girls’ behavior in writing the lists cannot be tolerated or ignored,” Post said. “The girls need to realize what pain they’ve actually caused and need to be held accountable for their actions.”

A “murder list,” as it was labeled, was discovered at Grove City High School on April 4. Six days later, another hit list was found at the middle school.

A ninth grader, 15, and 11th grader, 17, were charged with making terroristic threats for creating the first list, which included the names of 48 teachers and students.

The students will face the charges in juvenile court, according to a Grove City Borough Police report. No court date has been set at this time.

An eighth grade student is currently being investigated by Grove City Police for creating the second hit list. The list, titled “A list of people I would kill,” included the names of 14 students.

No further details are being released about the second hit list at this time, according to a police report.

In addition to the investigations, all three students remain on suspension from Grove City Area School District.

While Post acknowledged that the girls will soon be put through the legal system, he added that it would be difficult in deciding what punishment the district would pursue.

“Our community believes in doing what is right for all our children, yet how do we determine what is the right thing to do in these two cases?” Post asked. “We need to look no further than our youth to discover what we should do as adults.

“Our youths’ message last week, which was demonstrated by their behavior, was not anger for the outrageous actions of our three students, but rather of concern, calm and amazing grace.”

Post said community members may be angry with the three students who wrote the lists but added that, at the same time, many also cared for the students.

“Anger and caring seem like opposite emotions, yet we often get angrier at the people we love than the people who don’t know us,” Post said. “The message we received from our youth was one of grace, peace and caring. I think that would be a great way to begin the healing process in our Grove City family.”