Prosecutor on school threats: Bad jokes that cause people reasonable fear are crimes
Oct 29, 2014, 11:00 AM | Updated: 2:28 pm
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist tells KIRO Radio's Ron & Don that "jokes" that lead people to real fear are no laughing matter. (AP Photo/file)
(AP Photo/file)
Two Tacoma students say they were only joking when they allegedly made threats against their schools, but now those boys are charged with felony harassment.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist tells KIRO Radio’s Ron & Don Show that just making a bad joke is not a crime, but when it scares people, it’s another story.
“Bad jokes that put people in fear, when the fear is reasonable, are a crime,” Lindquist said.
Lindquist explained the two threats made at Franklin Pierce High School were separate, but related.
“First, one student loudly threatened to shoot and kill the school principal and this was three days after the Marysville school shooting, so everybody was understandably on alert,” said Lindquist.
“The second student, also a 16-year-old guy, hears about the first student and tweets as though he’s the one who made the initial threats, except his threats on Twitter are bigger. He tweets he’s going to shoot up the whole school.”
Some students and parents took the threat seriously. Lindquist said many parents held students home from school.
“Nobody sees the threats as humor, given the current environment.”
The parents and students experiencing real fear as a result of the threat is what moves these “jokes” into criminal territory, Lindquist explained.
“The only question there is: Did you put somebody in fear and was that fear reasonable?” Lindquist said. “Under these circumstances, it was reasonable for other students and parents to be in fear.”
They take any threat against children and schools seriously, said Lindquist, but he added the boys likely won’t be seeing a long jail sentence.
“Now, because they’re juveniles, they’re not probably facing a whole lot of jail time, but they’re sitting in custody, as we speak, and I hope they’ll be getting a message.”
In a separate incident in Kitsap County, a student was arrested Tuesday for a threat made against North Kitsap High School. That student has been booked into juvenile detention.
