Student arrested after ‘prank’ call
February 22, 2010 by Claire KnightPosted in: Latest News & Views, Legal News
Principals, teachers and law enforcement team up to make sure students are safe at school. But one student decided to see if they were on their toes with this “prank.”
Law enforcement arrested an Ohio student for allegedly making a prank call to 911, claiming a middle school student had been shot in the head.
After the call, law enforcement dispatched five police cars to the scene, and school officials put the school on lockdown.
They conducted a search, but found nothing.
According to police reports, the student, whose identity is protected due to age, has been charged with:
- Inducing panic
- Making false alarms, and
- Unlawful use of the school’s telecommunications device.
Does the punishment fit the crime? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Tags: lockdown, search, student safety
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
The punishment needs to be more severe. A penalty needs to be paid.
You dont agree? Police while responding to this call are delayed in responding to a serious call. The person who is in serious need of emergency help does not get it and ends up getting hurt or dying.. then what.. the kid starts crying oh im sorry i didnt know what i was doing.
Not going to fly children needs to be held accountable for their actions. a slap on the wrist does nothing but make this kid look like some kinda hero to his friends ” Oh I made the police show up for nothing” and then laugh about it.
April 10th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
This happened in Clay County High School, NE FL recently and two minors were charged with felonies and face multiple charges.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
This student needs to be hauled out of school in handcuffs, and slapped with a felony charge that does not get expunged on his 18th birthday! I agree with Unfrgvn that it is time that these “kids” are held accountable completely, and not excused because they are kids!
This issue will continue to get worse until penalties are severe and enforced.
September 10th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Oh, why don’t we just have a public hanging in the scool courtyard?
Please. The kid did something stupid without thinking of the consequences. Kids do that. So make him go through the process of being booked and arraigned, make him show up in court, etc. IOW, in general scare the heck out of him, then make him spend his summer washing police cars and sweeping the firehouse floor.
September 13th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
How can one comment on the punishment when all that has happened so far is a charge? Get back to us when the sentencing has occurred and we’ll let you know if it fits the crime.
September 13th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I think that kids will be kids and unfortunately kids these days can do more boneheaded things than kids in the past have done because of the resources at hand. I do not think that charging them with a felony that will not be expunged is the answer. I think that they need punished, yes, but not made examples of. I think Jake has the idea of the perfect punishment and I hope that Dave doesn’t teach any of my kids.
March 9th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Recently a student (18 yr old) made a prank call that was a bomb threat at my school – he actually made the call using his friend’s cell phone from inside the building. Of course, the response was that we evacuated the building for quite a long period so the building could be checked – the very large building takes hours to check thoroughly but in the meantime the call was tracked using caller id and the culprit was found quickly. We lost a good deal of class time and our daily schedule was thrown off greatly – lunches couldn’t be served while we were evacuated. The kid was arrested, charged with making a terrorist threat, and will be tried as an adult. Meantime the school has filed expulsion papers on him and the friend who allowed his phone to be used for the call – he admitted knowledge of the nature of the call before the call was made.
Do I think this is too harsh? Not really because, having taught these particular students, I know they are thugs and it’s about time they were removed from our school. If it had been some kid who had not been in lots of trouble on prior occasions, I wouldn’t expect the punishment to be so severe.