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School Violence and Slander

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In the days after Columbine, school officials around the country pleaded with students to inform on classmates if they suspected that their peers were planning a violent act.

Now it seems that a student who did that was sued over doing just that. A high school freshmen overheard a boy at her school say "We want to kill people, we’re sick of them." She reported this to the school, and the boy later threatened her for doing so.

The boy was kicked out of school and charged with making terrorist threats and threatening a witness. The expulsion from school was overturned, so the boy’s parents sued the girl and her parents. This suit was thrown out of court as a frivolous lawsuit, but not before the girl’s family had racked up $40,000 in legal fees.

The girls parents want the school to be responsible for the fees. And they should be. If the schools want students to be their eyes and ears, then they have to protect those students.

kelly fino
September 27, 2003 8:19 AM

I would just like to say that i believe that this article speaks the truth. if others had been scared to come forward before, then they probably wont want to come forward now. If the school had protected its witness, then others would see that they wouldn't be in a lot of threatening situations if they told. I totally agree with this article.

Trackback from Thinking Out Loud: Thought Leadership from an Enterprise Architect
March 26, 2005 8:04 AM

Thoughts on School Shootings

Excerpt: Was thinking about whether technology can help with prevention of school shootings......

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