Threats at School are No Joke

By Jon Duka

Fourteen-year old “Connor” was brushing his teeth on a quiet October Sunday night. He had finished his homework and was getting ready for bed. As Conner rinsed his toothbrush, a notification from his iPhone chimed in. He had received yet another Snapchat message.

This message, however, was different from most. It read “October 28 will be a horrible day for you.”

The message was followed by a series of progressively more aggressive messages. Connor shrugged them off as probably from a friend attempting a rather lame joke and went to bed. The situation was no laughing matter, however, when Connor was pulled out of class the next day to be interviewed by Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) deputies. Other students had received similar messages, were frightened, and alerted a school guidance counselor. In the end, the two teens who were responsible for sending the messages faced week-long suspensions. It could have been much worse.

Speak to Your Kids

Broward County Schools, the BSO, and local police departments implore parents to sit down with their children and discuss the potential consequences of sending threatening messages over the internet. Four students in Pembroke Pines alone have been arrested and charged for making school threats. Kids as young as 12 years old have been charged with multiple felonies. In many such cases, the perceived threats were all just a joke-gone-wrong. “Even if you are joking, making threats to school property or others will not be tolerated,” said Officer Randy Vedrine in a video posted to Facebook by the Pembroke Pines Police Department, “they are an arrestable offense which could follow you for the rest of your life.”

Helping kids understand the potential consequences of what may seem like an innocuous comment is important to maintaining a safe learning environment for all.

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