From the Washington County Insider.
December 4, 2019 – West Bend, WI – On Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at approximately 6 p.m. a student at a West Bend High School reported he received a message on social media of a picture of a compass. On the compass were the names of five cities including; Waukesha, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Brookfield, and West Bend. West Bend Police began an investigation and notified the City of Brookfield and Sheboygan Police Departments.
On Wednesday, December 4, 2019 West Bend officers identified a 15-year-old West Bend student that created the picture and sent it to friends. We also identified a 17-year-old West Bend student that distributed the picture to numerous other students. The 15-year-old stated he wrote the names of the cities with the intention of suggesting that Brookfield, Sheboygan, and West Bend would be the next victims of a shooting at schools in their cities. West Bend Police took the 15-year-old and 17-year-old into custody. The 15-year-old was referred to Washington County juvenile authorities for Disorderly Conduct. The 17-year-old was cited for Disorderly Conduct.
The information regarding the two actors was forwarded to Waukesha, Oshkosh, City of Brookfield, and Sheboygan Police Departments. The City of Brookfield Police Department is also referring charges of Disorderly Conduct to the Waukesha County juvenile authorities and Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office.
This seems too light a punishment – particularly for the 17-year-old. Making threats like that are no joke, but kids will continue to act like they are if law enforcement treats them like they are.
They should get jail time.
Ridiculous slap on the wrist.
Just playing devil’s advocate here, but wow, people are really losing their shit over this. Right now this is a viral emotional social dynamic that is feeding on itself – perhaps if this wasn’t getting blasted 24/7 the kids with their short attention spans would move on to something else. And kids are stupid when it comes to the law.
Not sure that this rises to the level of threatening behavior anymore than the Palin PAC “crosshairs” map was responsible for the shooting of Gabby Gifford. A good liberatarian lawyer could probably get this dismissed. Hate to see the day when inept or inarticulate media posts are misinterpreted and used against citizens to stifle free speech or take away their rights.
Just out of curiosity, what are the instance of casualty incidents where the perp disclosed ahead of time specific intentions to shoot up or bomb a place, as to date, time, and location? I know that there might be a few hear and there. Usually threats are made to disrupt the peace (hence the disorderly conduct law being applied).
It’s a valid point. But I don’t think that we can fix the “hair on fire” social dynamic. One of the problems is that the schools feel obligated (perhaps rightfully so) to close and/or warn parents. It creates a huge costly disruption, which again feeds into kids doing it more. If they didn’t get the overblown reaction, then fewer kids would probably bother.
But I don’t think we can fix that. No Super wants to be the one-in-a-million who didn’t react “enough” to a threat and something happens. They will always lean toward protecting their backsides.
So if we are going to react so strongly to stupid internet threats or things written on a bathroom wall, then we have to have an equally strong response when we catch the perpetrators. The kids who post a threat for “fun” or to try to get out of school will be deterred if they see other kids going to jail for it.
There’s no good answer. Personally, I think we really overreact to a lot of this, but I understand why people do it. I think parents who keep their kids home when a threat is made are silly – their kid is more likely to be killed by an overdose or car accident on the way to school than in a school shooting – but it’s certainly their right to do so. Same with the schools. They encourage the behavior when they feed the threatener’s ego with a huge reaction. But again, I don’t see that changing any time soon.
“They will always lean toward protecting their backsides.”
I would argue that they would lean toward protecting the students, staff, and community.
Owen, you always sound much better in your comments than you do in your quick hit posts. If only this blog had more people like you.