McNeil High School student arrested after alleged threat

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/31/2018 at 17:04 • Filed to: None

Great. This is my son’s school. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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DISCUSSION (18)

f86sabre > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:16

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like they did the right thing.

ttyymmnn > f86sabre
08/31/2018 at 17:20

Yeah, it sounds like they were on top of it. Last year, some friends of my middle schoolers were having joking conversations about guns and school. Admin came down hard. Parents called, boys sent home within an hour . I got a call from the SRO that afternoon , and he said the case was forward to the DA for possible charges. None were laid, but the boys were suspended for a week. My boys were clear, but it was a huge lesson on topics not to be trifled with.

f86sabre > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:26

Wow, yeah. I can see why the admin acted they say the did. My nephew was suspended for a few days for bringing a butter knife to school. He wanted to cut a muffin and put butter on it at lunch. On one hand it’s crazy and on the other hand I get it.

facw > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:27

It’s almost certainly an idle threat, but it’s pretty clear we are at a point where we have to take any threat seriously.

ttyymmnn > facw
08/31/2018 at 17:30

Ain’t nobody playing around, and that’s a good thing.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:33

So I’m gonna go on a limb here and say that much of that reaction is stupid. I mean the part about suspension for a week and bringing charges, well at least the charges part. Maybe a short suspension to discourage saying irresponsible things (as a teaching lesson because kids that age say irresponsible stuff all the time). If the goal is really to make kids safer by identifying threats early, then what should be mandated in such an instance is a thorough home and mental health investigation of the kid and his environment. Do everything to make sure a kid is just mouthing off and not really dangerous (or get him help before he breaks if he is). Do not ostracize and alienate him and possibly push him further along a path of being a danger.

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove
08/31/2018 at 17:40

It was a difficult thing, to be sure. One of the kids involved, ostensibly a friend, had been tormenting my kids for quite some time, both physically and verbally. I had already spoken to the AP about it. On this particular day, one of my boys was sitting at the lunch table with his head down because he wanted to be left alone, and the boy said of my son, “He’s just contemplating which gun he’s gong to use to shoot up the school.” And the boy had also shown knowledge of types of handguns and their use, though you can learn a lot about that by playing FPS games. School privacy rules prohibited the administration to give us any details about punishment or the results of the investigation, or how the investigation was carried out. At the end of the day, the kid stopped tormenting my boys, so I really don’t care if it was an overreaction or not. Honestly, I don’t think it was a credible threat. But just like you don’t joke about having a bomb as you go through airport security, you don’t joke about brining guns to school.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:54

So that boy was a bully. I’m glad he faced consequences and the behavior was handled, and your boys learned that the system (kinda) came through for them. I say kinda because the administration should have taken care of his behavior for bullying your sons and not waited until the gun jokes triggered their freak out protocol. Schools have never handled bullying properly.

We expect different levels of judgement between 12 year olds and adults. The consequences for behavior should therefore be different for those two groups. An adult who makes a bomb joke in the TSA line should know better. He deserves to be tackled, cuffed, and arrested on the spot. The response to a kid making the same joke should be different, taken seriously but in a different way . I just hope they aren’t treating every stupid thing a kid says as an active shooter situation.

benjrblant > Chariotoflove
08/31/2018 at 17:55

That’ll learn ya to talk about guns at school. Next time, just don’t talk about em before you bring one.

benjrblant > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 17:56

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove
08/31/2018 at 18:00

I went to the AP’s office before all this to have a meeting with him and one of my sons about this kid. The AP basically said that the “best” way they could handle it was to put a “stay away order” in place. That meant that the two boys were to have no contact whatsoever, and whoever broke the order would be punished. I thought that was bullshit, and I told him so, though not in so many words. It seemed like a punishment for my kid, who was the victim here. The other option was for the AP to call them both in and have a talk about the behavior and that they would have to agree to be friends again. Yeah, whatever. It seems to me that the system is very much geared towards protecting the bully and making a pariah of the victim.

I do agree with your observations about different levels of expectations and punishments. Unfortunately, there are just too many dead schoolkids not to take even the most trivial threat seriously.

Chariotoflove > benjrblant
08/31/2018 at 18:02

That’s a joke, but it’s also true. You need to not only punish the kid, but also look into what made him say that Make sure there’s nothing behind it, because next time, he may not warn anyone.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 18:09

Seriously, of course, but also appropriately. High school may be a different response protocol too. Those kids are more like adults.

I am not surprised at the reaction you got. Educators don’t deal with discipline problems well at all. They don’t want to protect anyone so much as make the problem go away. And it hasn’t changed at all since we were kids.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 20:40

Idiot kid plays stupid game, wins stupid prize. I hope they throw the book at him.

HoustonRunner > ttyymmnn
08/31/2018 at 23:01

Sorry to hear about that, glad they are taking things seriously though. I grew up in Round Rock West (Deepwood Elementary, Chisolm Trail MS, RRHS alum) and I remember building the new school. Father of a friend of mine was the first principal. News like this always hits harder when it is a place you know.

ttyymmnn > HoustonRunner
08/31/2018 at 23:55

Just got home from a game at Dragon Stadium. McNeil lost to Del Valle 36-33 on a field goal with no time left after a total BS interference call in the end zone. Oh well.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn
09/04/2018 at 20:21

Geez that sucks. Glad they took it seriously though. Can’t take chances these days.

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW
09/04/2018 at 20:22

It does. Haven’t heard any more about it, so I guess it’s okay for now.