It's hard to fathom that Mars High School would experience another bomb threat just three weeks after a threat that police quickly solved.

Still, on Thursday, a note was found warning that a bomb would go off at the school at 9:28 a.m. Friday. Understandably, the threat disrupted the start of Friday's classes and resulted in beefed-up security measures.

As with the first threat on Feb. 11, police were quick to reveal that they might have suspects. In this case, it was thanks to images from security cameras outside the girls' bathroom.

If it was a student who was responsible for the second threat, as in the first case, people have to be wondering what was going through that young person's mind to prompt the threat.

How could the student think the district's guard was down?

There have been a number of other incidents in recent weeks in Butler County that trigger similar puzzlement.

It can be asked what the 17-year-old boy who broke into the Butler YMCA early Feb. 15 was thinking. Obviously, he didn't stop to think that places like the YMCA, which serve many people in positive ways, also have security systems.

Surveillance cameras at the “Y” recorded the suspect and led to his arrest, police said.

Then there was the unconscionable incident reported in the Butler Eagle on Feb. 20 about a 28-year-old city man who was arrested for sexually assaulting a younger-than-year-old boy who was under the care of the defendant and his wife last year.

There are few punishments too severe for anyone responsible for such a deplorable act, if he is found guilty. His wife claims she witnessed the sexual assault.

Again, if true, what was the defendant thinking?

Meanwhile, some people are left wondering whether he ever sexually assaulted another child, even though he denied any other such contact.

Then there was the Venango County woman, who, at 8-months-pregnant, was allegedly high on drugs on Feb. 26 when the vehicle in which she was riding was stopped on Little Creek Road at Interstate 79's northbound on-ramp.

What possessed her to endanger her unborn baby is beyond comprehension. This was a 30-year-old woman, not an immature teen who might not have known the connection between what she put in her body and the health of her not-yet-born child.

Obviously, the person responsible for the latest Mars bomb threat didn't think about the gravity of that incident either. Or, perhaps, that person just didn't care and simply was trying to make some statement to authorities or peers. There was no thought to how getting caught might negatively affect the threat-maker's life going forward.

Whatever the case, the punishment for such a threat should be strong enough to deliver a clear message. The threat was not a laughing matter, and the punishment that's eventually meted out shouldn't be either.