Indiana: High School Senior faces 8 years in prison for harmless prank

Prison will change him for the worse, if he's sentenced that long.

Hell, even a year would change most.

You have to change, to survive.

It's the same in insane asylums. Lol.

Originally posted by querious

Originally posted by bhornbuckle75

Originally posted by prof7

Good point....That is the main issue here. It would seem to me, that since a caption to a photo in the article from the link said that the image was captured before the school opened....He is at the very least guilty of breaking and entering.

That seems a bit speculative on your part - I remember sometimes going to school very early and staying late; were the doors locked? security often unlock doors well before the official opening..
The article does not mention how he gained entry.

I think even trying to pin a B&E on him for this, is a bit of a stretch.

You, of course, could be right....Still if he was there before School officially started then it would be Criminal Trespassing...though that is a considerably less serious of an offense than Breaking and Entering.

I'll just have to wait (as should we all) to find out what he is officially charged with, before I can make too much of a judgement call on any of this.

8 years is a ridiculous sentence, shouldn't even be one.

Community service would be better, or even a very stern telling off. Planting a box unattended in a school toilet is a stupid idea especially with how everyone reacts over unattended packages nowadays.

It's interesting that people would agree he needs prison time. The kid put a box in the girls locker room, expecting a girl to open it and an inflatable doll to emerge. Hahahahahheeheeheeh huh? Since when is any of that against any law? It's only the Indiana paranoids who see danger in that, closet facists pretending to be school administrators. When someone pressed charges against this lad, this horny boy playing at practical jokes, the person that pressed charges exposed themselves more than anyone involved in this episode.

Breaking and entering and terroristic acts for the package is what he is being charged with because the response by local pd required the activation of the bomb squad to be deployed to the scene requires those who place suspicious packages (bomb or not) means officers had to respond with the heavy equipment requires the extra time as when the pd responded they did not know if one of their own wasn't going to go home that day. Plus the cost of evacuating the school, the cost of at least say 100 officers to the school, the heavy equipment.

This is where the sentence stems from and nothing else.

To you HS Seniors, if you want to pull a prank do not show up with any package that could be rendered as suspicious or be viewed by another as an bomb or whatnot. Krazy glue the locks shut, put like soda in the sprinklers, reconfigure the public adress system to play something else. Seal all the windows shut or something stupid like that but do not ever place a sealed box anywhere.

OK.... this kid is a moron. We played plenty of pranks in school but this was just stupid. I don't think it was "criminal" though. I don't think we throw a kid in jail for being plain ole' stupid?

However, he, and all other kids need to understand that this was no harmless little prank and it should carry some severe consequences. Nail this kid with some heavy duty community service.... for at least a couple of years. Something akin to 5 years probation with a mandatory number of hours back to the community tackling some real grungy, manual tasks. Make it so every day he thinks twice about every other stupid idea he ponders.

Originally posted by TheImmaculateD1
Breaking and entering and terroristic acts for the package is what he is being charged with because the response by local pd required the activation of the bomb squad to be deployed to the scene requires those who place suspicious packages (bomb or not) means officers had to respond with the heavy equipment requires the extra time as when the pd responded they did not know if one of their own wasn't going to go home that day. Plus the cost of evacuating the school, the cost of at least say 100 officers to the school, the heavy equipment.

None of what you mention is a crime though, unless he actually planted a harmful device. The cost of Police, and so forth, does not constitute a criminal issue, though technically could be civilly charged to his family. Again though, it was not his intent to draw that type of suspicion, so its pretty hard to pin him with a crime or even civil responsibility over someone else’s suspicions. Our taxes cover the cost of these authorities when they are called out to a scene that ends up being nothing.

They have charged him with Felony Criminal Mischief, which is a sort of rubber band crime that they are stretching over him, because technically there is no real crime here to charge him with other then costing the city some money and embarrassment. At best they could try and sue him civilly for the cost of the response, but again he should not be charged with a crime here.

reply to post by defcon5



The school was closed for business and the doors were locked. That says it all.

If he is really asking what he did wrong, he needs a reality check. Though not jail imo. I simply don't believe he was not aware of the CCTV and how it might be perceived. As for the 'no harm done', firstly there was the expense of responding to a hoax threat, secondly some people will have genuinely been frightened. He could also have been diverting resources from the real thing. If he doesn't have savings, I would set an attachment of earnings to his future salary so that everything is paid back - with interest. As for the school, I would suggest he is made to do some cleaning on the premises - wearing a high vis jacket with the logo 'Idiot'. .

He is just looking for attention.

You have to assume he doesn't have any friends if he thinks the effort he put into this stunt would result in humor.

His dorkiness is enough of a punishment for this guy. But involve the law and courts? no way hes a kid

Originally posted by starchild10
If he is really asking what he did wrong, he needs a reality check. Though not jail imo. Firstly there was the expense of responding to a hoax threat, secondly some people will have genuinely been frightened. He could also have been diverting resources from the real thing. If he doesn't have savings, I would set an attachment of earnings to his future salary so that everything is paid back - with interest. As for the school, I would suggest he is made to do some cleaning on the premises - wearing a high vis jacket with the logo 'Idiot'.

edit on 4-6-2011 by starchild10 because: (no reason given)

Star,

Odds are restitution has been ordered to pay the municipality back. That is why he is in jail for nothing more, nothing less.

If he didn't intend to look suspicious he would not have acted that way. Why a dark hoodie. Why not yellow or blue? Why a box and not a backpack? He may have thought it was funny but in light of past events authorities can't take chances.

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reply to post by tidycat


Yeah, your're right.

Maybe we should have all the kids wear uniforms, use clear plastic backpacks, wear photo ID's and pass through metal detectors. All that with the policemen, the drug dogs and the cameras in the restrooms we can make schools like prison and everyone will be safe.

Oh, wait.

Originally posted by TheImmaculateD1
The school was closed for business and the doors were locked. That says it all.

That is not a crime, there is no statue called “first degree closure of a public educational facility”, now is there?

The school was shut down as a precautionary measure by the authorities based on their suspicions, not because the defendant did or had the intent to do anything illegal. At best the city has a civil case for financial damages, and the school can take disciplinary action against the student, but none of that makes something that is not a crime suddenly become criminal.

I am seeing a lot of "when I was in school" post here so i will add mine>
When I was in school everyone carried and knife and all the staff knew it and no one cared. Half the cars in the parking lot had guns. A few trucks had gun racks with the rifles in plain view. No one cared. All of this was in the late 70's though the 80's. Even up in the 90's this was no big deal or problem, well at least not around here. Just when did it all get so crazy and why and how? It is like I just woke up one morning in another world. I wished I could find a way back there.

a rich guy buys a yacht goes sailing without knowing what hes doing and storm/ignorance plus his own ive seen it on tv training equals the need for a rescue. it costs society more than 10k dollars,because of the storm it puts the lives of the rescuers at real risk. even if every experts review the facts and come to the conclusion that taking a boat that big out without proper training is close to suicide combined with the storm the rich guy in question was very stupid and risked his life and the lives of others. we dont prosecute stupidity and in a alot of cases we dont even fine stupidity. consider if a child had been brought along we dont charge stupidity with child endangerment. what the high school kid did was incredably stupid! was he trying to sneak a blow up doll in or was he trying to make it look like a bomb was being planted? his intent would have alot of bearing on the case but imho he was very very stupid not criminal. as far as american society/history goes he didnt even do anything all that extreme, who hasnt heard of or known someone who did just as stupid or worse? all in the name of high school fun/stupidity/ in some towns its a friggen tradition that you show how stupid you are senior year. looking back with older eyes we were stupid/unproductive and these traditions should become extinct but in this case i really hope an american jury tells the govt exactly where they can stick it!!

The problem with our society's "legal" system, in terms of actually making society safe (or safer)
for our citizens, is that our legal system as a whole is designed by and run by morons.

5 year-olds are arrested, violent psychopaths are released from jail after serving ridiculously low sentences, and innocent teeangers (like the OP) are treated like terrorists because of a school prank.

Weed the criminals out. Give the kid a stern lecture, let him know what he did was foolish, and let him off with a warning. If he does something like this AGAIN, send him to jail for a bit and impose a fine. Upon his release, make it clear that if he does it a THIRD time, he's going to serve prison time.

I was pretty brainless at 18 years of age. I did some really stupid things that got me in trouble. I was very lucky to have gone before a wise old judge who gave me a second chance. I realized that I better start 'playing nice' or I was going to spend a year or two behind bars.

P.S.... I freakin' HATE it when law-enforcement types like prosecutors, police chiefs and judges use terminology like "In this post-Columbine world"