Hoax Bomb Threat at Washington Latin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My fear is Latin caved to PC optics. God I hope not. If these were Princeton bound students, they had probably worked their butts off at WL and were decent community members. If this is a first and only offense, I have a problem with this.

1. Bomb Threat
2. Identity Theft
3. Misuse of technology

Not just one single thing and two of the above three are pretty extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was an opportunistic one of prank unless these kids have a history of victimizing this child or others..sorry, tat is the generally accepted definition of bullying.

Exactly. People use the word bullying so loosely without knowing the meaning. Soon the word will become trite from overuse, and nobody will pay attention.

[Anonymous]

It's really sad to read this story. While I hate to see this may negatively affect their college acceptances, this incident goes further than a simple prank. There's something very mean-spirited about the whole thing - from framing the one student, to frightening the entire student body. I can't begin to understand how they ever thought this could be funny. I hope the best for all three students involved.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was an opportunistic one of prank unless these kids have a history of victimizing this child or others..sorry, tat is the generally accepted definition of bullying.

Exactly. People use the word bullying so loosely without knowing the meaning. Soon the word will become trite from overuse, and nobody will pay attention.

Yes, the world will be perfect when kids can be bullied in peace.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was an opportunistic one of prank unless these kids have a history of victimizing this child or others..sorry, tat is the generally accepted definition of bullying.

Exactly. People use the word bullying so loosely without knowing the meaning. Soon the word will become trite from overuse, and nobody will pay attention.

Yes, the world will be perfect when kids can be bullied in peace.

This was not a bullying incident. When you throw the word around you are hurting everyone. Children should be taught what bullying is and what bullying is not, and to know the difference. You may need to relearn it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Latin parent here. It is indeed an awful situation all around. You can be sure that the administration and leadership of this school are feeling the pain and angst of this decision more than any of the random parents who are criticizing them for being too harsh. If you all feel nauseous about the expulsion imagine how the people who HAD to make that decision feel. It had to have been agonizing to weigh the factors in deciding an appropriate response, keeping in mind the values of the school and the good of the whole community. NO ONE is happy with the outcome but I believe Latin is handling it with as much professionalism, grace and compassion as possible.

THIS is the difference between Washington Latin and BASIS, and why I am desperately hoping we get into Latin. At BASIS, if you can't hack it for whatever reason, including the school not abiding by your IEP or 504, they don't care They make no effort to keep kids who may be troubled. NONE And frequently they make no effort to find out who started the problem - they just hold everyone equally responsible They kicked a kid out after 10th grade, giving him basically an F for cheating which had not been sufficiently defined ex ante, so he had no clue he was cheating, so he got a failing grade in 10th, and now is no longer at BASIS fr 11th grade this year. But they did not agonize for a single second, even though the teacher involved resigned because of their behavior, and boy did the students and parents wish she hadn't. An accomplished English teacher is like a rare bird at BASIS. But teachers are expendable (including bad ones, who they fire at the end of the year but do nothing in the interim to mitigate the damage done to the students), and even good students are as well if they want you out, they push you out. It is really like dealing with a machine that tramples all over your kids and you are helpless to stop it.

Former BASIS parent, in desperate need of Latin's "professionalism, grace, and compassion."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's really sad to read this story. While I hate to see this may negatively affect their college acceptances, this incident goes further than a simple prank. There's something very mean-spirited about the whole thing - from framing the one student, to frightening the entire student body. I can't begin to understand how they ever thought this could be funny. I hope the best for all three students involved.

Framing the one student? Did you think anyone seriously thought that anyone would be dumb enough to send a threat to a school from their own school account? This reads so spur of the moment and silly. Even the language is super silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really sad to read this story. While I hate to see this may negatively affect their college acceptances, this incident goes further than a simple prank. There's something very mean-spirited about the whole thing - from framing the one student, to frightening the entire student body. I can't begin to understand how they ever thought this could be funny. I hope the best for all three students involved.

Framing the one student? Did you think anyone seriously thought that anyone would be dumb enough to send a threat to a school from their own school account? This reads so spur of the moment and silly. Even the language is super silly.

It seems very silly to think that a youngster smart enough to get into princeton would be too stupid to see that this 'prank' would stir up s$#@. Our kids are told they can't even take a tylenol pill to school without problems, yet they can make a bomb threat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin parent here. It is indeed an awful situation all around. You can be sure that the administration and leadership of this school are feeling the pain and angst of this decision more than any of the random parents who are criticizing them for being too harsh. If you all feel nauseous about the expulsion imagine how the people who HAD to make that decision feel. It had to have been agonizing to weigh the factors in deciding an appropriate response, keeping in mind the values of the school and the good of the whole community. NO ONE is happy with the outcome but I believe Latin is handling it with as much professionalism, grace and compassion as possible.

THIS is the difference between Washington Latin and BASIS, and why I am desperately hoping we get into Latin. At BASIS, if you can't hack it for whatever reason, including the school not abiding by your IEP or 504, they don't care They make no effort to keep kids who may be troubled. NONE And frequently they make no effort to find out who started the problem - they just hold everyone equally responsible They kicked a kid out after 10th grade, giving him basically an F for cheating which had not been sufficiently defined ex ante, so he had no clue he was cheating, so he got a failing grade in 10th, and now is no longer at BASIS fr 11th grade this year. But they did not agonize for a single second, even though the teacher involved resigned because of their behavior, and boy did the students and parents wish she hadn't. An accomplished English teacher is like a rare bird at BASIS. But teachers are expendable (including bad ones, who they fire at the end of the year but do nothing in the interim to mitigate the damage done to the students), and even good students are as well if they want you out, they push you out. It is really like dealing with a machine that tramples all over your kids and you are helpless to stop it.

Former BASIS parent, in desperate need of Latin's "professionalism, grace, and compassion."

I was wondering how long it would take you to chime in here. I was hoping that you had found a new hobby....just wishful thinking I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's really sad to read this story. While I hate to see this may negatively affect their college acceptances, this incident goes further than a simple prank. There's something very mean-spirited about the whole thing - from framing the one student, to frightening the entire student body. I can't begin to understand how they ever thought this could be funny. I hope the best for all three students involved.

Framing the one student? Did you think anyone seriously thought that anyone would be dumb enough to send a threat to a school from their own school account? This reads so spur of the moment and silly. Even the language is super silly.

It seems very silly to think that a youngster smart enough to get into princeton would be too stupid to see that this 'prank' would stir up s$#@. Our kids are told they can't even take a tylenol pill to school without problems, yet they can make a bomb threat?

I think they made an internal bomb "joke" not an external bomb "threat". Yes teens are dumb. I don't think they were acting on much but impulse, which if you've EVER parented a teen involves very little of the actual thinking part of the brain. I hope life/others/you are more forgiving when your teen does something like that.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who think expulsion was too harsh, what DO you think appropriate punishment would have been?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for asking. I think it would depend on the kids' previous record. If it was fairly clean (few are spotless if they've been at a school since 5th) then I would give a significant suspension, ask them to research and educate others (ie the school community) on a topic like internet safety for teens (this is recommended even with bullying scenarios: active atonement/fixing what has been done with a logical consequence), and give them a conditional graduation (if they don't get in trouble before the end of the year). Obviously a full, mediated apology with the child whose account they swiped. That's what I would do.

Counseling? Maybe to understand the hellfire they brought down on themselves. These don't sound like sick/disturbed/delinquent/habitually bullying teens. They sound like they had a dumb as rocks moment, which frankly could be most teens I've met.

[Anonymous]

It's odd to me how many of you are making this about the two boys who were expelled and not the kid whose email address was used. It is up to the adults in the expelled kids' lives to help them understand that this is a setback, but not the end of the world.

What they did to that other child will likely stick with him for a long time. If WL is truly the safe community many of you are describing it as, I wouldn't expect them to allow the victim to have to share his classes and space with the boys who did this to him.

[Anonymous]

For four more months? What happened to sitting down and apologizing in a mediated, guided and resolution minded way? You do know that is an extremely common occurrence in schools--as opposed to NEVER interacting with the person who may have caused conflict again?

These children's previous 8 years in the school should count to a conditional 4 months to graduation if this is an anomaly. If the child whose account was used cannot be around these kids post resolution (and you are totally assuming/speaking for them) then there are independent study or alternative schedule possibilities.

The more I think about this, the more I think the admin 'ran scared' and as a WL parent I am pretty disappointed and upset today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For four more months? What happened to sitting down and apologizing in a mediated, guided and resolution minded way? You do know that is an extremely common occurrence in schools--as opposed to NEVER interacting with the person who may have caused conflict again?

These children's previous 8 years in the school should count to a conditional 4 months to graduation if this is an anomaly. If the child whose account was used cannot be around these kids post resolution (and you are totally assuming/speaking for them) then there are independent study or alternative schedule possibilities.

The more I think about this, the more I think the admin 'ran scared' and as a WL parent I am pretty disappointed and upset today.

I wonder how the parents of the child whose email was used feel?