Juveniles do all sorts of things that seem like fun at the time, but they live to realize they were stupid. Think prank calls, bullying, sneaking beers into the woods, or damaging private property on Mischief Night.
Although these acts violate one law or another, when the youths are caught, the tendency by authorities is to be firm enough to teach them a lesson, but not so harsh that it will affect their future. One day they will be more mature, look back with embarrassment, and maybe even have to discipline their own youngsters for the same things.
But a line must be drawn when it comes to calling in phony bomb threats at our schools. To the youths who make such calls, it may seem like a way to get out of class for a while or live up to a dare. What they are literally doing is threatening to end hundreds of people’s lives, and that’s far too serious to be chalked up to youthful indiscretion.
That is why we support a bill being proposed by state Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth and Middlesex) that would crack down on those who make bomb threats or other false public alarms.
Handlin’s proposal would provide a judge with a set of punishments, one for juveniles and one for adults.
For adults, the bill would require the court to impose one penalty from each of the following sets for a first-time offender: either a mandatory prison term of 18 months or 40 days of community service, and a suspension of one’s driver’s license for 18 months or a fine of anywhere between $4,000 and $15,000.
For juveniles, the parents would have to make restitution of the costs to all public agencies responding to the emergency, in an amount no less than $2,000. Also, the proposed legislation would require the judge to impose any two of the following penalties: a minimum of one summer at a juvenile detention facility; the revocation of the juvenile’s driver’s license or the postponement of receiving a license for a minimum of one year; or a minimum of one year performing community service.
School bomb threats have been occurring with what seems to be an unusual frequency this year, with incidents at Colts Neck High School, Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, and two at Colonia High School in Woodbridge, among other area schools. But no community has been plagued by the problem worse than Handlin’s hometown, Middletown.
According to Mayor Thomas Hall, 17 bomb threats were made at Middletown schools this school year alone, the majority of which took place at Middletown North High School. Arrests were made for some of these incidents, but they continued anyway, showing that some youths just were not getting the message. With this law, maybe they would.
These situations are costly, in terms of both the man hours it takes for emergency responders to investigate them and the amount of educational time lost during evacuations.
But the great risk from this bomb threat trend is that it could lead to a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” situation – that law enforcement personnel, school faculty and students become so desensitized to threats that someone will let their guard down, when each case must be treated seriously.
Handlin’s comment that the threats are more serious in the post-Columbine world may sound clichd, but not off-base. An incident like that is unlikely anywhere, but possible everywhere.