[Vision2020] MHS student likely to face charges for Snapchat threat

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (September 15, 2017) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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MHS student likely to face charges for Snapchat threat
A screenshot of threat appears to target 10 names
The Moscow Police Department will recommend charges be filed against a Moscow High School student who allegedly made threats to several other students over Snapchat on Sunday night, Capt. Roger Lanier told the Daily News.

Lanier said the department will recommend the female juvenile be charged with threatening violence on school grounds. That recommendation will go to the Latah County Prosecutor's Office once the department's digital forensics detective finishes processing the phones involved in the case.

A copy of the Snapchat message, obtained by the police department and the Daily News, appears to show a photo of a handwritten list of 10 names. The list appears to be titled "People to shoot," though the last two letters in the title is cut off in the photo.

MSD Superintendent Greg Bailey said the district will consider taking disciplinary action after the police department completes its investigation.

In cases in which a student threatens a peer, their principal may decide to suspend the student from school for up to five days, Bailey said.

The superintendent may also decide to suspend the student for an additional 10 days, and the school board can inflict a five-day suspension as well, for a potential 20-day total suspension.

Particularly serious threats also make a student eligible for expulsion, Bailey said.

The decision to expel comes from the school board and is made after the student goes through something similar to a formal hearing, Bailey said. The student may request a lawyer to represent them.

Bailey said he was pleased the alleged threat had been reported before there was an opportunity for harm.

He extended his sympathy to Freeman High School in Rockford, south of Spokane, where a shooting occurred Wednesday, leaving one student dead and three others injured, allegedly at the hands of another student.

A report by The Associated Press indicates a student at the high school said the alleged shooter "had brought notes in the beginning of the school year, saying he was going to do 'something stupid' and might get killed or jailed." The student also described the suspect as being obsessed with other school shootings.

"It's important to note that this never got to that point," Lanier said of the situation at MHS. "It could just be a student acting out. It could've been that, but we were able to intervene early."

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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