More Copycatting: Threats And Surplus of Caution Shut Down Two Public Schools, Three Universities

Maybe it's time to withdraw from America.

In Louisiana, parents picked up hundreds of students from Bogalusa's high school and middle school amid reports that a man had been arrested Tuesday morning for threatening a mass killing in a note that alluded to the murders at Virginia Tech.

Schools Superintendent Jerry Payne said both schools were locked down and police arrested a 53-year-old man who allegedly made the threat in a note he gave to a student headed to the private Bowling Green School in Franklinton. Both towns are in southeastern Louisiana.

"The note referred to what happened at Virginia Tech," Payne said. "It said something like, 'If you think that was bad, then you haven't seen anything yet."

We really don't punish death threats harshly enough. Even if they're empty threats, they're designed to cause disruption, distress, and panic, and usually do. (And cost a lot of money besides.)

Besides, anyone who issues death threats is a ticking time bomb anyway. Lock 'em up.

But I doubt these miscreants will suffer a penalty much beyond explusion. "Troubled youth" are never really responsible for their actions.

posted by Ace at 03:05 PM

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