It was just a prank that got out of hand, but Tuesday morning the 15-year-old Yorktown High School student accused of threatening a fellow classmate through Instant Messenger learned his actions come with very serious consequences.
"I am very sorry for the disruption I caused to my school, to the community and to the police department," the boy said before Judge George Varoutsos. "I promise that it will never happen again."
But under the terms of the boy's plea agreement — a two-year suspended sentence for making a written threat — he will remain under probation until age 18 and must do community service work that includes talking to students about the dangers of making such threats.
"This appears to be a reasonable outcome to an unusual case," said Varoutsos.
Prosecutors said the boy sent the threat May 17 to a female student by using a screen name taken from the script of a soon-to-be-released movie. Defense attorney Judith Wheat said the message was intended as a joke.
But the gag got out of hand after the girl took the threat to her parents, who then phoned the police who searched Yorktown that night. Nothing was found and the school opened its doors the next morning only to be evacuated again for a second search.
More than 10 K-9 units and detectives combed the school in an effort coordinated by the FBI's Joint Counter-Terrorism Task Force. The boy was identified during an investigation after the search, according to police department spokesman Matt Martin. His arrest sparked outrage among students at the school, who are now circulating an online petition with comments from many calling the police response an overreaction. Other comments criticize the girl's handling of the situation.
"IN THIS DAY and age, we must treat any threat of violence against students or schools as real until proven otherwise," said Police Chief Doug Scott. "And even if they end up being a hoax, these threats disrupt the school day and divert vital public safety resources away from real needs. We have to find some way of letting our kids know that making violent threats, even if meant as a prank, will result in severe consequences."
The Yorktown student has spent the last several days under house arrest. Wheat said it remains to be seen whether he will be readmitted to Yorktown and punished by the school as well. Making a written threat to kill is, under Virginia law, a class six felony, but the verdict means the boy will not have a felony conviction on his record.
In a copy-cat case, a 13-year-old boy from Swanson Middle School was arrested less than a week after the evacuation of Yorktown for threatening his sister — a student at Washington-Lee High School — also via Instant Messenger. Washington-Lee was put under a lockdown and searched. Two other students reported similar threats. The boy was caught by police computer forensics experts who traced the messages back to his computer. His trial later this month will be a closed one because he is under age 14.