Girl taken into custody over threatening text message

[Kacey]

CENTENNIAL

An 11-year-old girl faces charges in juvenile court, all because of a text message threat against an elementary school teacher.

The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department says Thursday morning a parent noticed a text message on his 10-year-old daughter's cell phone that had a cartoon character with a pipe bomb. The message gave the impression the pipe bomb was for a Peakview Elementary School teacher.

<snip>

Nothing was found on school property, but as a result of the interviews, an 11-year-old girl admitted to sending the text message after the teacher disciplined her.

She was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center and will face charges of interference with school staff, faculty or students.

I find this extremely disturbing.

 

[exile]

CENTENNIAL

I find this extremely disturbing.

It's double-edged disturbing. Kids are finding it easier and easier to appeal to the language, and in some cases the actions, of extreme violence, for what is probably a whole complex of culturally damning reasons. And at the same time, the adult world, reacting to well-publicized but isolated cases of pathological violence by school children, and haunted by the increasing sense of terrorist danger, is finding it increasingly difficult to sort out genuinely threatening behavior from what are probably fairly common cases of juvenile rebelliousness expressed in extreme form. Everyone is haunted by the ever-present question: If we don't act on this, could this be something that turns into another Columbine? and so on.

And the problem is, there's no way to tell in advance the innocent cases of (pre)adolescent `acting out' from the cases of genuine pathological violence waiting to happen...

 

[Makalakumu]

Exile basically said what I was going to say regarding the mindstate of our youth these days, so I'm going to take a slightly different tack on this topic.

Text messaging is a newest way bullying is occuring in our schools. Kids are sending threatening text messages to other kids all of the time. Banning cell phones doesn't really work, because they have gotten so good at hiding them and their use. The really insideous thing about this new form of bullying is that it is so hard to notice, so hard to discover.

This year I'm going to try out a new product that I heard about in my classroom.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4355~r.96035782

If it works out well, I'm going so suggest that our school get wide area signal blockers.

http://www.cell-phone-jammers.com/

Now there is no need to go on witch hunts to see who and who doesn't have cell phones.

 

[grydth]

Have to agree with you, exile. These are issues that you and my wife (an Assistant Dean) have to deal with every day.

Trouble is, I think the public gets a skewed version of how well you are doing. When you make the right call - the huge majority of times - that isn't considered "news". We only hear about these matters when a school ignores 574 obvious danger signs, or when it comes down like the KGB on some kid for a Thought Krime.

In addition, I question the completeness of many reports - do we know what the teacher/prof actually knew when they made their call, and what the full context is?

As I said before, I sometimes wonder if we are so grotesquely misinformed as to be functionally the equivalent of the temporarily infamous Miss New Speak...... odd that it would be that way with so many information outlets...

 

[Drac]

I foresee a time when cell phones jammers are installed in EVERY classroom...Then someone is bound to come along as say its a BAD THING because in the case of an emergency the cell phones will be useless..Maybe the teachers will have an emergency deactivate switch on them than can be activated in time of trouble..

 

[morph4me]

While I agree with everything that's been posted so far, I find myself wondering if the child in question used a smiley and it was misinterpereted as a threat. If I use this:shooter: or this :shotgun: or this:whip: in one context, it might be aa threat, but in a different context it might just indicate my furstration and feelings at the moment. I'm not trying to second guess the teacher or the police, but it does make me wonder if someone overreacted or if there was an actual threat made.

 

[agemechanic03]

Well, I feel that if she had gotten the teachers number to send the text in the first place, it was more of a threat. As for an earlier comment about how all these kids doing things these days, SPANK THE DARN THINGS!!! It is not child abuse for crying out loud. It is very good discipline, and kids know that they won't get punished harshly to make them stop if mommy and daddy continue to say, "Oh Johnny, you can't be doing that now. Go up to your room and sit and think about it and we'll talk later." RIDICULOUS!! I say. And yes, I'm 22 and that's how I feel.

 

[Drac]

Well, I feel that if she had gotten the teachers number to send the text in the first place, it was more of a threat. As for an earlier comment about how all these kids doing things these days, SPANK THE DARN THINGS!!

You aint the only one who feels that way..This feeling is among a lot of the threads here..More that once while on duty I've had to explain the difference between discipline and abuse to parents..

It is not child abuse for crying out loud. It is very good discipline, and kids know that they won't get punished harshly to make them stop if mommy and daddy continue to say, "Oh Johnny, you can't be doing that now. Go up to your room and sit and think about it and we'll talk later." RIDICULOUS!! I say. And yes, I'm 22 and that's how I feel.

The kid goes to is room wathcher TV or logs into the net or plays his X-Box..Oh that's REAL punishment....

 

[Kreth]

SPANK THE DARN THINGS!!!

I've commented on this before. I feel there's a direct correlation between the unPCness of corporal punishment and the general bad attitude of kids these days. I see kids all the time saying things to their parents or other adults that would have got my mouth slapped to the back of my head.

 

[MarkBarlow]

Kids know that whatever punishment they receive for misdeeds will be either be mild or nonexistent. In too many cases, their parents will come screaming to their rescue rather than support the school, regardless of the circumstances.

A few years ago, I had a very bright but obnoxious kid in my dojo. After a few months, his mom commented on how improved his behavior was. He was saying "Yes, Sir/No, Sir", getting along with his sisters and doing well in school. She asked me how I had "reached" him. I told her honestly that for the first couple of months, he spend more time sitting on the side of the mat than he did on it. Every time he was a brat he either gave me push ups, had time outs or got his feet swept out from under him. She laughed and said, "No, really, what did you say to him?" I told her that I was completely serious. She went ballistic, telling me that she wasn't paying me to bully her child. She pulled him out of class that night and never came back. Even though the boy was enjoying class, doing better in every aspect of life and happy, she would rather see him be a little brat than be disciplined. Is it any wonder that kids are problems?

I grew up in a small southern town where any adult felt it was not only their right but their duty to tell any child to stop doing something disruptive or destructive. It's not unusual today to see kids tell adults (including their parents) to shut up if they are reprimanded.

At some point, the scales will rebalance themselves but I dread being a senior citizen in a society that not only tolerates but rewards a mentality of selfishness and egocentric behavior.

 

[Kreth]

I grew up in a small southern town where any adult felt it was not only their right but their duty to tell any child to stop doing something disruptive or destructive.

Unfortunately, those days are gone, for the most part. Now we have a society where people will stand by rather than assist an assault victim, or in some cases even film the assault with a cell phone for their friends' amusement.
There are still people out there willing to speak up, but they're becoming harder and harder to find.

 

[Drac]

I'm praying for the day the lega system gets rid of the juvenile tag they give to those under 18 and lets officers treat these young criminals as ADULT CRIMINALS..There will be a lot less back talk after they get slammed around and no antiquated law to protect them...

 

[Sukerkin]

Oh may the day hurry towards us where we get a return to a world where sensible corporal punishment is meted out where necessary.

The OP shows what can happen at the other end of the 'modern discipline methods' scale. Surely there has to be a saner way of punishing her offence than that?

 

[Gordon Nore]

CENTENNIAL

I find this extremely disturbing.

Kacey, I find this disturbing as well, but I'm curious if you and I see this in the same way. When you say it is disturbing to you, are you referring to the girl's actions or the outcome?

As someone else mentioned, the news story is a little sparse on detail, but the outcome makes sense to me in that the police became involved. For whatever reason, the child did not come clean about the message initially, prompting the police to sweep the school. Had she spoken up sooner, the incident might have been contained at the school or board level.

That said, I give full props -- admittedly, based upon little information -- to the girl's parents, followed up on the cellphone message.

In another thread, I wrote about a stabbing that happened in my son's JHS. The school went immediately into lock-down. My wife and other parents were at school absolutely terrified by the vast police presence, the TV crews, and no information. Creating that level of emergency response and worry has to have to consequences.

Sidebar: A number of people have commented about cellphones in schools. The Toronto District School Board, where I work, recently released its policy, saying basically that students' cell phones are not to be used in school. At my school, a middle school, we tell the kids to leave their phones turned off in the lockers. I know that phone use has wreaked havoc in many school jurisdictions -- videotaping teachers, kids getting called by their parents during class, etc. A couple of times, my personal cellphone has come in handy at work -- I think it can be a legitimate tool for staff, and so I'd hate to see signals being blocked altogether.

 

[Kacey]

Kacey, I find this disturbing as well, but I'm curious if you and I see this in the same way. When you say it is disturbing to you, are you referring to the girl's actions or the outcome?

Both - that a child that age would make such a threat, and that the response would be so intense in the absence of any other action. I've looked for other versions of this story (it's local), but haven't found any that had different/more details. Should there be a consequence? Certainly. Should a child that age be arrested? I can't say without more information.

Sidebar: A number of people have commented about cellphones in schools. The Toronto District School Board, where I work, recently released its policy, saying basically that students' cell phones are not to be used in school. At my school, a middle school, we tell the kids to leave their phones turned off in the lockers. I know that phone use has wreaked havoc in many school jurisdictions -- videotaping teachers, kids getting called by their parents during class, etc. A couple of times, my personal cellphone has come in handy at work -- I think it can be a legitimate tool for staff, and so I'd hate to see signals being blocked altogether.

Yeah, me too... we have similar problems, but so far blocking the signal has not been considered seriously (that I know of). First offense, phone is taken to the grade-level administrator, child signs a sheet signifying understanding of the rules of phone use, phone is returned after school. Second offense, parent signs rule sheet, phone is returned to parent. Third offense, phone is retained by school until end of school year. You'd think this last would be effective, but an amazing number of parents just buy their kids a new phone and have the old one turned off... it's really not the kids' fault that their parents don't teach them properly or give appropriate examples of proper behavior.

 

[Gordon Nore]

Both - that a child that age would make such a threat, and that the response would be so intense in the absence of any other action. I've looked for other versions of this story (it's local), but haven't found any that had different/more details. Should there be a consequence? Certainly. Should a child that age be arrested? I can't say without more information.

I read you now. Agreed. It would be good to know the child's prior behaviour in the school, as well as the parents' past communications with. However, it escalated to a police matter.

Yeah, me too... we have similar problems, but so far blocking the signal has not been considered seriously (that I know of). First offense, phone is taken to the grade-level administrator, child signs a sheet signifying understanding of the rules of phone use, phone is returned after school. Second offense, parent signs rule sheet, phone is returned to parent. Third offense, phone is retained by school until end of school year. You'd think this last would be effective, but an amazing number of parents just buy their kids a new phone and have the old one turned off... it's really not the kids' fault that their parents don't teach them properly or give appropriate examples of proper behavior.

I think NYC implemented that step right up front, and now parents suing the schools.

 

[Sukerkin]

Gordon, a quick off-topic smidgen of techie advice.

If you want an image you post to be visible when you're not on-line then you need to upload it to a web-based hosting service and link to that e.g.

.

A file held in your local temp directory may either be volatile and disappear when you switch off or simply not be available when your computer is powered down.

Forgive me if this is unwarranted 'advice' and I'm spouting off about stuff you already know .

 

[Drac]

it's really not the kids' fault that their parents don't teach them properly or give appropriate examples of proper behavior.

Babies that had babies???

 

[Kacey]

Babies that had babies???

Yeah, way too many of those... one of my current middle school students is 12... his mother is 25... and that's the least disturbing thing I've heard about his home life.

 

[Gordon Nore]

Gordon, a quick off-topic smidgen of techie advice.

If you want an image you post to be visible when you're not on-line then you need to upload it to a web-based hosting service and link to that e.g.

.

A file held in your local temp directory may either be volatile and disappear when you switch off or simply not be available when your computer is powered down.

Forgive me if this is unwarranted 'advice' and I'm spouting off about stuff you already know .

Actually, I'm not sure where the following link at the end of my post came from -- I didn't post it, not that I know of anyway. Maybe a mod can delete it.

But thank-you for the tip.

G