2nd Teen arrested In School Threat Case

Sunday, December 13, 2009 - Associated Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Somerset County Prosecutor says a

second juvenile has been arrested in the investigation into a

planned "Columbine-style" attack on a central New Jersey High

School.

 

Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said Saturday that the second teen is a

friend of the 16-year-old Bridgewater-Raritan High School student

who was arrested on Thursday.

 

The second teen is identified as a 17-year-old Bridgewater

resident who is a senior at Immaculata High School in Somerville.

Neither teen's name has been released.

 

Forrest said police searched the 17-year-old's residence Friday

night and discovered a number of rifles and shotguns, as well as

shotgun shells. He said the guns are registered to the boy's

father.

 

Both boys are in custody. The 17-year-old has been charged with

possession of destructive devices.

 

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

destructive devices :?: :?: :?: :?:

This is a somewhat confusing situation as no crime had been commited and people were arrested for having in their possesion items that basically any FID holder might have in their home. Other than having heard a rumour of a plot, I don't see any crime committed. I don't believe of hearing anything being found on school property, have you?

Yeah, the one article I read breathlessly reported that they found shotgun shells on the premises of the suspect, like it was his secret lair. Yeah, his dad's house and his dad's guns were found there too.

I think that ever since Columbine, they take no chances on any rumers of attacks. This isn't the first time they've arrested school kids on a rumer of a "kill list" or some other threat.

In today's world, all a kid has to do is say he is going to do something and he can be arrested. One student was a competition shooter and the guns were his dad's. The other student (from a neighboring catholic High School) was reported to have in his possession ammo and other items but his family knew nothing about it (so that can't say it was his father's stuff). This all happened in the town right next to the one I lived in and taught at for 35 years.

 

As an aside, I had an FBI agent come into my classroom and ask where "John Smith" (not his real name) sat and had me remove the hard drive from his computer and give it to him. Since I was also the District Technology Technician, I also had to give them a copy of all the files that were in his account on the school server. They pulled the kid (a freshman at the time) out of school that day and he never came back. It was like he never existed! Of course, because of my position, I knew what he was pulled out for and while I can not disclose details, I can say that it was all over a "vague threat made against another student in an email".