Thought Police in Illinois

Imagine you are sitting in class and you lean over to your friend and say “Wow, that guy looks weird... Weird enough to bomb the school.” And your friend says “You should tell someone about that guy?” and you reply “It’s a joke dude, he just looked weird”. Perhaps a teacher overhears part of the conversation, takes it seriously enough to call the police and make a big deal. Should you be suspended from school? Should you be arrested for initiating of a false bomb threat? Who is at fault? Does blame need to actually be placed?

Now imagine the conversation takes place via IM from your own home while playing Halo with your pal and your pal mentions it to her mom who freaks out and calls the police. The police come to your home, seize your computer, the school is called, and a big deal made. Should you be suspended from school? How about expelled? Or arrested for initiating of a false bomb threat, disorderly conduct? Who is at fault? Is there any blame or is it just a simple misunderstanding?

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Published: November 3, 2006
Bomb joke may bring expulsion
A Hononegah junior also faces a criminal charge in the incident.
By Sadie Gurman
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR

"During an Oct. 24 online conversation, Boyer, a junior at Hononegah High School, joked to a friend that another student looked “weird enough to bomb the school.”...

...The transcript of one conversation, provided to the Register Star by Boyer, reads “there is no bomb.” The chat took place over the networking program AOL Instant Messenger. “i was messing around.”...

Friend: anywho, did you tell someone about that guy?
Boyer: lol no
Friend: ... do it
Friend: whats his name?
Friend: Noah
Friend: whats his name?
Boyer: nvm it a joke dude he looked weird

…“I didn’t really do anything,” Boyer, 16, said. “I didn’t threaten the school. I didn’t purposefully try to scare anyone.”

The incident marks a new frontier in school safety, one in which school officials take any suspicious comment — even a joke made over the Internet — seriously, Rockton Police Chief Stephen Dickson said.

Boyer said his expulsion hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday. Hononegah administrators said they could not confirm the hearing and declined to comment on the incident. “It’s a student matter, and we cannot discuss it in public at all,” Associate Principal Ehren Jarrett said Thursday. “It’s a student privacy issue.”

Boyer was arrested for disorderly conduct, which happens whenever “a person does any act in such an unreasonable manner that they alarm or disturb another and provoke a breach of the peace,” said Pamela Wells, assistant state’s attorney for Winnebago County..."

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What is happening here? Am I the only one who thinks the person that made the call to the police is at fault? If I say “Johnny Depp is good enough to eat” and you call the police and say I play to murder him then you are the dangerous idiot not me. While I believe any and all threats made at school should be taken seriously, the kid didn’t shout “He’s got a bomb!” in the middle of an assembly; he cracked a smart ass joke on the internet followed by “Dude I was just kidding.” It’s an outrage that the kid faces a conviction and possible expulsion, an absolute outrage. I find the measures taken by the authorities to be a gross overreaction and I feel it directly encroaches on all our civil rights.

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Stephen Dickson (Chief of Rockton Police) - chief@rockton.ws
Hononegah School Board:
David Kurlinkus (President) (Term expires 2007) - DKurlinkus@aol.com
Kerwood Watts (Vice-President) (Term expires 2007) - watts@firstrockford.com
Tana Vettore (Secretary) (term expires 2009) - napactr@charter.net
Sandy Fordell (term expires 2009) - fordrock5@charter.net
Diane LaForge (term expires 2009) - d2jj@hotmail.com
Scott Moyer (term expires 2009) - scott.moyer@hs.utc.com
Bob Zoeller (Term expires 2007) bob.zoeller@charter.net