BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer
“Unfortunately, it seems as though there are some people who view these bomb threats as pranks, … and do not view them as acts of terrorism, which I believe they are.” – Amy Handlin Assemblywoman A rash of bomb and shooting threats at local schools has emerged in the wake of the Virginia Tech rampage, and while the alarms have so far been false, officials are growing increasingly irritated over the lost instructional time.
Since the mid-April attacks, there have been over a half-dozen false alarms enacted by what is suspected in most cases to be local students in various area schools.
On April 18, North Brunswick High School was locked down completely after a phone message from what was later revealed to be a female student threatened to “shoot up” the school that day. Two days later in Edison, another student allegedly shouted “He’s got a gun” in a crowded hallway, prompting immediate police response and the student’s arrest. On April 24 in South Brunswick High School, school officials discovered a bomb threat written on a bathroom wall, leading to two large-scale security sweeps of the building being conducted. On that same day in Marlboro, both the middle and high schools also faced bomb threats. Eight days later, South Brunswick once again received a bomb threat written on a bathroom wall, leading, once again, to a large-scale security sweep, as well as the posting of police and administrators at each entrance to randomly search students and staff entering the building. On May 8, Marlboro was the focus of yet another threat, prompting police action.
South Brunswick’s pair of bomb threats has prompted harsh reaction from school administrators. The scheduled June 14 early release day has been changed to a full day of class, and students will now need to sign in and out of bathrooms for the rest of the year. Senior Society activities will also begin one day later than originally scheduled.
“If there are any further disruptions to the school day in the coming weeks, we will continue to make early release days full days of school and further postpone Senior Society,” South Brunswick High School Principal Tim Matheney said.
Strings of bomb threats leading to lost school time are not new. At one point last year, South Brunswick was wracked with three bomb threats over the course of three days, with a fourth one stopping school again a few days later. Two teens connected with one of the threats were apprehended by police after investigation by the school resource officer. A bit farther south, Middletown schools were faced with about 20 bomb threats throughout the district last school year.
Copycat effect
According to Joe Boxer, an assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers University who specializes in at-risk youth, it is common for a large-scale violent incident to spawn waves of imitators in the immediate aftermath, in either repeating the crime or simply threatening to do so. Cases tend to die down with time, he said, though there may still be sleeper effects in some individuals that may not be apparent until years later. Boxer said a clear example is actually the Virginia Tech shooter, who cited the Columbine shooters as a partial inspiration. Still, he said that while many violent threats may be pranks, by no means should they not be taken seriously.
“I wouldn’t want to say across the board that anyone calling in a bomb threat is pulling a prank,” Boxer said. “It still might be more serious and something [to be] taken seriously regardless, but there is a huge difference between a threat and carrying it out, so I wouldn’t just chalk it up to a harmless joke or trying to be funny. So I think some kids might do it [to be funny], but not necessarily.”
Boxer said a big reason for copycat crimes, threats to perform copycat crimes or even copies of threats to perform copycat crimes comes simply from the fact that people tend to learn by observation.
“Kids see this on TV and practice and trying things out in a copycat manner, maybe falling short of crimes, but … if you see kids wrestling in the backyard, that’s copycat just as much as someone who saw the Virginia Tech [shooting reports],” said Boxer.
Still, he noted that in the cases of actual crimes committed, he does not think that what people see on TV is entirely to blame, since many people already have an idea to do something in their heads. What copying other crimes can do, Boxer said, is give people a script to follow, a template for less-creative criminals.
Crackdown bill stalled
In response to the rash of threats in her hometown of Middletown, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth/Middlesex) introduced a bill in May 2006 mandating tougher penalties for false alarms, though at the moment it is stalled in the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee. Handlin said that it has not even been posted for a vote yet.
For adults, the bill would mandate either an 18-month prison term or 40 days community service, as well as loss of driving privileges for 18 months and a fine between $4,000 and $15,000. For minors, their parents would have to pay the costs of the public agencies responding to the emergency, or $2,000, whichever is higher. Also, they might spend a summer at a juvenile detention camp, lose their driving privileges or face the postponement of their license acquisition for at least a year, or serve a minimum of one year of community service.
Handlin does not chalk up outbreaks of bomb threats to youthful indiscretion, something that she said has been a point of contention with other legislators.
“Unfortunately, it seems as though there are some people who view these bomb threats as pranks, simply kids being kids, and do not view them as acts of terrorism, which I believe they are,” Handlin said.
The assemblywoman believes that multiple bomb threats greatly affect not just the school itself but the surrounding area by creating an environment of fear and anxiety. She added that no one can know when the next terrorist threat will appear.
“I wish I knew precisely why this bill hasn’t moved, but it’s stalled, and I hope it doesn’t take a real bomb going off somewhere in New Jersey for more people to get behind this piece of legislation,” Handlin said.