How should a school react when a high school student sends a text message like this: "im gonna come to school with one of phillips gun and kill half the school ill load everyone with bullets and then shoot myself in the head right in front of u."
Is this simply a melodramatic display, a Pleasant Valley High School student in the Chico Unified district reacting all out of proportion to a girlfriend breaking off a relationship -- or a credible threat to others and himself?
In this case, the student who received the message told a friend and word spread to other students, one of whom told the Chico police. The sender was arrested and prosecuted for a misdemeanor offense. The juvenile court placed the 16-year-old on informal probation and ordered him to write a 500-word essay on the Columbine High School shootings.
But the message on electronic threats now is mixed, because a state appeals court ruled last week that the sender did not threaten any physical harm to the person who received the message: "That text states C. C. will shoot 'half the school' and then shoot himself in front of S. It does not threaten harm to her."
The law narrowly limits the definition of threat to the person receiving the message. Unfortunately, the ruling sends the perverse message to adults that it is OK to make threats, so long as you don't threaten the person to whom you are sending an electronic communication. The law itself is flawed and needs fixing.
That said, criminal prosecution should not be a first resort in dealing with teenagers. Immature students, no doubt, will continue to make threats, and most will never carry them out. We ought to be wary of criminalizing emotional turmoil in minors.
Schools cannot ignore violent threats. In most cases, students need a swift message from their parents and school that they must take responsibility for their actions. A 500-word essay and supervision was an appropriate punishment -- and the school itself could have imposed it without resorting to the courts.
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