GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Another student found delinquent in juvenile court of making social media threats against Green Bay Preble High School was sentenced Tuesday: barred from social media and must write a paper on the impact of actual school shootings.
State law prohibits the media from identifying those being prosecuted in juvenile court.
During the course of a one-week span in December, there were three separate social media threats against Preble High. Four students face charges in juvenile court for those incidents.
The 16-year-old boy who posted he was planning to kill everyone at the school and then kill himself pleaded no contest Tuesday to creating a computer message containing a threat to injure or harm.
When asked by Judge Tammy Jo Hock why he did it, the boy said “I wasn’t thinking” and added that he was just following along a nationwide trend of “joke” posts about school threats.
Judge Hock criticized that reply, however, noting he created a new account and didn’t use his own name, showing he knew there would be negative reaction to the message.
As she has with others who have already been through the sentencing phase, Judge Hock ordered the boy to research and write a paper on the impact of actual school shootings, and participate in a specially designed victim-impact panel created after a wave of school threats.
The teen was placed on county supervision until he turns 17 late in the year. In Wisconsin, 17-year-olds are under the jurisdiction of adult courts. He must perform 76 hours of community service, and not use social media while on supervision.
Two teenage girls responsible for another of the Preble threats received a similar sentence, albeit with 100 hours of community service because their supervision time is a full year.
The teen allegedly responsible for the other incident at Preble returns to court Wednesday.
The week after the threats at Preble, a student brought a gun to East High. Two students were found delinquent in those cases.
A 15-year-old boy who provided the gun — and also was found delinquent for a series of other incidents — was placed on two years of supervision in an out-of-home setting. Specifically, he was placed at Rawhide Youth Services near New London. He must also perform 100 hours of community service.
The 16-year-old girl who brought the gun to East was placed on supervision for a year, and must perform 100 hours of community service.
The combination of the threats led the school district to place all middle and high schools into online learning for several days in December. No one was injured in any of the events.
Earlier this month, one student was arrested after making an online threat against West High. That teen returns to court early next month.
