The Virginian-Pilot
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VIRGINIA BEACH
Walking up to a classmate and making a threat can bring you a misdemeanor charge. Making the threat through e-mail or text message is a felony. In the eyes of the law, it isn't what you say, it's how you say it.
Among the latest to learn that distinction is a 17-year-old Kellam High School student who is scheduled to be in court today. He is accused of sending death threats through MySpace to two female classmates and telling a third female student to her face that he would hurt her, police spokesman Adam Bernstein said. He is charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor.
State law declares a written threat, including one sent electronically, a Class 6 felony. A conviction carries a punishment of up to five years in prison. A verbal threat, however, is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The Kellam student's case represents a small but growing type of offense involving juveniles who make threats electronically, said Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant.
"It's important for their parents to know they can get in a lot of trouble for what they text message" or e-mail, he said.
Harsher punishment is justified for written threats because the author can "threaten people and put them in fear of bodily harm, in essence, anonymously," Bryant said, speaking generally and not about the Kellam student's case.
The state's law on written threats has been on record since 1950. It has been revised several times, including in 1998, when wording was added to cover e-mail.
The state misdemeanor law was approved in 1994, but it applies only when victims are school personnel.
As a result, authorities will prosecute the Kellam student on the misdemeanor charge under a 1965 city law that classifies threatening another person as disturbing the peace, Bryant said.
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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in your home who is incharge?
"Why should a parent of a '17' year old be found just as responsible? We are not talking about a 7 year old. He is 17, old enough to know better and to know the consequences. I like to think that I am a parent, who is strict yet fair, and for the majority my children do not get in “trouble”, but unfortunately I can not be with them 24/7. I am also willing to guess that people who feel that parents need to be punished right next to their 17 year old (almost adult) do not have children, or can spend 24/7 with their children."
I raised my kids and they never gave me a "heart attack" moment either. I think some of you need to read Bill Cosby's book "C'mon People"
As long as my kids lived with me under my roof, they lived by my rules, and I never beat my kds either. My kids knew they were loved, and they knew I was always there for them. Talk to your kids, listen to them, and you won't have problems with them.
idiot
What an idiot! Throw the books at him. Kids are doing everything on the 'net these days, videos of people beating each other up, taking drugs, what an idiot.
any death threat
Any death threat should be severely punished. If the threat comes from a minor then the parents need to be punished as well. Paretns have got to rmember they are accountable and responsible for their children. Anything else is child abuse.
Some People
I am a little confused. Why should a parent of a '17' year old be found just as responsible? We are not talking about a 7 year old. He is 17, old enough to know better and to know the consequences. I like to think that I am a parent, who is strict yet fair, and for the majority my children do not get in “trouble”, but unfortunately I can not be with them 24/7. I am also willing to guess that people who feel that parents need to be punished right next to their 17 year old (almost adult) do not have children, or can spend 24/7 with their children.
Parents?
I agree that parents should be involved more than they seem to be. But there have been many cases where parents have done everything they could possibly have done and the children still misbehave. Something happens in their brain that causes them to implode upon themselves and do destructive things. So holding parents as accountable as the children isn't the answer for all things. In some cases, yes, but like the example in this article, no. That is, if the parents take away the cell phone like they should.
once again, where are the parents?
"Attorney Harvey Bryant. "It's important for their parents to know they can get in a lot of trouble for what they text message" or e-mail, he said."
Parents simply don't get it, and I wonder if many of them ever will. I will continue to say, parents should be charged righ along with their minor children. Maybe, and just maybe kids will start acting like they have some sense, and paretns will learn to be parents.
What an idiot!
This is the third example of the dumbing down of America that I have read today in the Pilot. If you're going to do something this stupid, please just go to the police department in turn yourself in so we don't have to pay for the gas to come arrest you. Did you think you weren't going to get caught? Did you think nothing would happen to you for making vile threats? Think again.