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http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/08/10604539-when-rumor-the-internet-and-school-violence-fears-collide

This kid's life must be a living hell if this story is even halfway accurate.

That is messed up. The teens acting that way didn't surprise me, but parents using Facebook for more than Farmville was a surprise. They should have known better.

The hell?
Well that seems a bit silly...

The behavior of both the teens and the adults was reprehensible. I'm not surprised, but still saddened.

This happened to a guy I knew at our 40k club actually. He was in ROTC and had a number of factors adding stress to his life (his mom lost their house, just broke up with a girl, hadn't been able to sleep for a few days because of moving stuff hastily) and made a comment about how he could kill someone. Somebody got word and cops were knocking on his door and interrogated him for a few hours before they realized he wasn't a threat. He got banned from ROTC shooting comps for a few months because of that, and even after people were asking if it was okay for him to be there. In all the time I've known him, I've never seen him have a violent outburst or even get particularly upset, even when things have gotten hairy, so I tend to believe his story. Authorities can only take things seriously til they know otherwise though I guess.

The threat of violence is taken wayyyyy toooo seriously in this country anymore. I suppose it's because the country has decided that the police, and ONLY the police, have the right to have implements of self-defense right on hand at all times, so we as a group feel helpless and endangerd when threats are made, however offhand they may have been made.

I was once fired for commenting off-hand that 'this unit is so frustrating I could strangle someone!' Anyone with an ounce of sense would recognize it as an expression of frustration, not an actual threat against someone's life (especially since we had a joke poster made and actually displayed in the break room involving 'Complaints Department' and one of the other employees taking a hammer to a fautly unit), but there you go.

There are enough cases in which children have brought guns to school in the US, and shot people by accident or on purpose, that it isn't something that can just be ignored.

Relapse wrote:if this story is even halfway accurate.

Halfway accurate is about the best you can expect from MSNBC.

I can't believe the parents let the police search their house (I assume they let them), if there were actually a warrant then the parents should sue the feth out of the school.

I've heard of some guy who I think was questioned by police after doing a school presentation on school shootings. His story was in the Toronto Star a couple of years ago.

biccat wrote:

Relapse wrote:if this story is even halfway accurate.

Halfway accurate is about the best you can expect from MSNBC.

I can't believe the parents let the police search their house (I assume they let them), if there were actually a warrant then the parents should sue the feth out of the school.

Agreed. The kid was already having problems and chances are there wouold have been other things there. I'd have not consented to that or interviewing my child.
Get a warrant for the house but be sure the house would have already been searched by me.
Speak to my kids - no never.