36 Cali. Schools Locked Down After Vague Threat From Homeless Tweaker
While I think it's irresponsible to dismiss any kind of bomb threat offhand, do you think we're breeding a culture of fear by going fucking apeshit when the crazies invariably crawl out of the woodwork following a well-publicized tragedy?
Hit this around with the Discussion Stick.
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MSNBC.com
36 California schools under lockdown
Suspect threatened to ‘make Virginia Tech look mild,’ sheriff’s office says
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC
Updated: 2:10 p.m. PT April 19, 2007
YUBA CITY, Calif. - Authorities put all 36 schools in 12 Northern California school districts under lockdown Thursday as police searched for a man who claimed he was planning an armed attack that would “make Virginia Tech look mild.”
Sutter County Undersheriff J. Paul Parker told MSNBC-TV that the man, identified as Jeffrey Thomas Carney, 28, telephoned his pastor and family members Wednesday night to say he had an automatic weapon, improvised explosive devices and poison.
Sheriff’s officials said Carney made no specific threat to any particular place. But because of the reference to the massacre of 32 students and professors Monday at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, principals at all 36 of the schools in the county’s 12 school districts shut down their campuses and locked students in for safety, Assistant Superintendent Linda Protine said.
Sutter County said Carney had no known address, but court records listed an address on Jamie Drive in Yuba City when he was arrested on felony domestic violence charges April 4 in Yuba City, about 50 miles north of Sacramento.
It was not immediately clear why Carney, who Parker said had a long criminal record, was free after that arrest.
The sheriff’s department described Carney as a 28-year-old white male, 6 feet, 1 inch tall, weighing 190 pounds, with brown eyes and short brown hair. Parker said he had an extensive criminal record, most recently for domestic violence.
Parker said Carney “was exhibiting symptoms of methamphetamine psychosis” and was several pounds lighter than he appeared in a recent arrest photograph because of methamphetamine abuse.
Officials said he may be driving a red 1990s-model Honda or Toyota sedan with a black hood, a distinctive car that they hoped would be easy to spot. They asked anyone who had seen it to call 530-822-7307.
‘Copycat’ threats reported nationwide
The scare comes as schools nationwide have been reporting would-be “copycat” threats in the wake of the mass shootings at Virginia Tech by Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people Monday before killing himself.
Several high schools in metropolitan Detroit were on high alert Thursday after threats referring to the Virginia Tech shootings were found in bathrooms at two Oakland County schools, and Kalamazoo Valley Community College was shut down for the rest of the week, NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit reported.
Eight buildings reopened Thursday after they were evacuated Wednesday at the University of Minnesota when a bomb threat was found in a chemistry building restroom.
Wednesday, Hastings College of the Law at the University of California shut down after police noticed a blog posting threatening a shooting on campus, NBC affiliate KNTV of San Francisco reported.
Since Monday’s killings, similar threats have also led to investigations or temporary lockdowns of schools in Arizona, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, according to local reports compiled by MSNBC.com.
© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveBy Alex Johnson of MSNBC.com with Alex Witt of MSNBC-TV.
URL: [url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18203613/[/url]
© 2007 MSNBC.com
I guess it's a severe reaction, but it's probably for the best. What if that other psycho had logged onto these forums a couple days ago and simply posted the message: "I'm going to kill myself, and take a load of people with me." Chances are we'd have ignored it, and maybe even have forgotten it come the massacre at Virginia Tech. I guess the principals are doing this in the interest of their staff and pupil's safety. You can't fault them really.
36 schools though? 12 school districts? Based on a threat by a gun who, if he had a gun, would have probably sold it for more meth?
You can't spend your entire life living in fear.
It's the political thing to do in this situation. Shows everyone that they are reacting to these problems. That said, the whole thing sounds suspicious and convenient. People are always going to overreact when things like this happen. But that's not always a bad thing.
[QUOTE=Spike;955990]36 schools though? 12 school districts? Based on a threat by a gun who, if he had a gun, would have probably sold it for more meth?
You can't spend your entire life living in fear.[/QUOTE]
I see your point Spike. There is a book that someone wrote, I am trying to remember the name of it, Fear State or maybe Psychology of Fear....anyway, the book had some statistical data which basically was saying that there is a higher chance you die in a car accident than be a victim of a terrorist. Same thing with schools if you think about it.
If you got the data of how many kids have died in school / college rampages and divided it by the total amount of kids that go to school I am sure the percentage would be minute. At the same time as a principle you bear responsibility for others.
Do you remember in 9/11 when everyone said, why didn't CIA warn us about this? Lets pretend you are a principle, you hear about the death threat and say to yourself, "nah, its just a bunch of BS, we can have class". And then something does happen...even if only 1 kid dies. What are the parents going to say? What would you say if you were a parent and you kid got shot dead, when the principle knew about a possible threat from a violent individual?
So the main question when it comes to the principal is, "is he feeling lucky?". Closing the schools and nothing happening to the kids, no one will go up to the principle and say "Sir you closed down the schools what were you thinking!!". So there is zero reward for the principle keeping the school open.
does anyone else think this Lockdown stuff is pretty stupid? I mean, yeah it works if the criminal isn't [i]already[/i] there in the school! like in every single case of these things happening. If there was some instance of something happening just off-school grounds I can see why they'd do something like this but why lock the kids up with some nut with a gun instead of letting them get the hell away
Locksdowns are controlled based ideas. Letting go of the kids would probably be safer but what about the kids that need their parents to pick them up? A lot of parents work while their kids are in school.
I'm not talking so much as letting the kids go home or if the parents pick them up or not as I'm meaning letting the kids run for their life
So I guess this is a bad time to tell you guys what [I]I[/I] was going to do to make Va tech look like baby pood?
[QUOTE=nathaniel parker;956032]I'm not talking so much as letting the kids go home or if the parents pick them up or not as I'm meaning letting the kids run for their life[/QUOTE]
Oh!
I totally agree with you on that.
This is hypothetical talk obviously, but if I was still at school and I saw someone shooting others I would try to take them down. I would rather die like a warrior than hiding in a corner praying to a God I do not believe in.
[QUOTE=chimney scott;956041]So I guess this is a bad time to tell you guys what [I]I[/I] was going to do to make Va tech look like baby pood?[/QUOTE]
I can understand that entire sentence until that last word "pood" then it all spirals out of control
[QUOTE=nathaniel parker;956049]I can understand that entire sentence until that last word "pood" then it all spirals out of control[/QUOTE]
I am assuming he meant "food", since its only one letter off.
It's expiramental text, nate. You just [I]don't get it[/I].
But no, I actually meant poo
Oh boy!
I live in a pretty small Canadian town. Nobody here has a gun, really at all, AND I go to the rich-kid school where everyone is very clean-cut and everything is very safe. Yet! We run "Code Red" drills at school where we cower in the corners while the principal walks about with a BB Gun, "threatening" stray children. Seriously...
Haha!
Hmmmm... CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME!!!
... What if the police or the FBI or whoever faked this bomb threat in Cali, and 'reacted' to something that they staged themselves, in order to calm people down and show them that they're now on 'high alert'? Certainly would stop any angery mobs from protesting or such.
I'm just really angry with this whole situation.. and it's probably just because I'm heartless. But don't people die every day? In sick, strange, horrible ways? I'm not saying we should let a million gunmen storm through all the public schools with guns, but I don't think everyone should be acting so fucking [I]afriad[/I]. I just think they're bored..
Perhaps its high time we ran the schools more like what I imagine military school to be like. Except without any of the weapons training of course. Nobody wants a school that's run like a prison, but its the first solution that comes to my mind. Place security gaurds in the classrooms, and allow spankings. Anyone acting inappropriate with be dealt with appropriately. Its time to show these kids that bringing a gun to school and unloading on your peers is not OK.
That is what the workplace is for.
No one has the right to teach us stuff we don't want to learn. That's what our Bill of Constitution's all about.
[QUOTE=Squeek;956181]Perhaps its high time we ran the schools more like what I imagine military school to be like. Except without any of the weapons training of course. Nobody wants a school that's run like a prison, but its the first solution that comes to my mind. Place security gaurds in the classrooms, and allow spankings. Anyone acting inappropriate with be dealt with appropriately. Its time to show these kids that bringing a gun to school and unloading on your peers is not OK.
That is what the workplace is for.[/QUOTE]
You joke about this but, the high school I went to, in Greece was a private high school that was pretty much full of embassy kids and corporate manager's kids. When Desert Storm happened kids would show up with body guards. It was not an uncommon site to see three body guards hanging out in a class and yes they had handguns on them.
I remember coming out of the school bus and a limousine with police escort showing up just to drop kids off to school.
[QUOTE=niko;956210]You joke about this but, the high school I went to, in Greece was a private high school that was pretty much full of embassy kids and corporate manager's kids. When Desert Storm happened kids would show up with body guards. It was not an uncommon site to see three body guards hanging out in a class and yes they had handguns on them.
I remember coming out of the school bus and a limousine with police escort showing up just to drop kids off to school.[/QUOTE]
I only joke at the end. I don't know about handguns on the security gaurds. Tazers maybe. Running a school like a prison would be scary at first, but I would hope that eventually it would be no big deal. And it wouldn't be exactly like a prison. Most of the kids follow along and are there to learn and have a good time. It would just be known that there is a line, and when it gets crossed, a real punishment is handed out. Don't fuck around! It's too dangerous anymore.
No one has the right to teach us stuff we don't want to learn. That's what our Bill of Constitution's all about.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, or not..:confused:
[QUOTE=chimney scott;956237]I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, or not..:confused:[/QUOTE]
I'm not being sarcastic anymore. There are probably a thousand reasons why running a school like a prison would end in disaster, but this is just the first idea that comes to my mind. I'm frightened for my niece and nephew who are in Kindergarten and second grade right now. What is school gonna be like when they get older? I've heard stories of 5th graders having orgies in the class! WTF?!?! I won't be long before some tot waxes half his class just before naptime. When I was in school I was very much against the idea of uniforms and whatnot, but now that I'm older, it just seems like the only way to keep kids safe. And apparently, colleges needs some security changes too.
Somebody tell me why my idea is bad. Really.
No one has the right to teach us stuff we don't want to learn. That's what our Bill of Constitution's all about.
There was a bomb threat at UNL today so nobody went to school and we stayed home and watched TV.
There is hope, but not for us.
All this bomb-threat stuff sounds very Project-Mayhem to me.
can you imagine the shitstorm if someone started going nuts at a Starbucks? and then bombthreats started popping up for them?
Wowza!
I posted this in PA, but I think people should start calling in pizza threats. You call a business or a public building and threaten to deliver free pizza, and in a few minutes, free pizza arrives at that business or public building or whatever. Or you could threaten to deliver flowers, or threaten to hire some strippers.
Because people like flowers, pizza and strippers more than bombs. But not all together at once.
[QUOTE=Squeek;956292]I'm not being sarcastic anymore. There are probably a thousand reasons why running a school like a prison would end in disaster, but this is just the first idea that comes to my mind. I'm frightened for my niece and nephew who are in Kindergarten and second grade right now. What is school gonna be like when they get older? I've heard stories of 5th graders having orgies in the class! WTF?!?! I won't be long before some tot waxes half his class just before naptime. When I was in school I was very much against the idea of uniforms and whatnot, but now that I'm older, it just seems like the only way to keep kids safe. And apparently, colleges needs some security changes too.
Somebody tell me why my idea is bad. Really.[/QUOTE]
Well, what will we accomplish by regulating everything so tightly that no one could possibly be able to harm anyone else? First off, it would be nearly impossible. Second off, would it really then be worth it. I know it's scary and all that someone can take a gun, go literally anywhere they please and shoot people like birds.. but it's the reality of the situation. And even if it wasn't possible, some people would find a way to kill others anyway. It's horrible that these things happen, but I believe that instead of inspiring fear and the need for more strict regulation on uncontrollable things, we should be teaching kids that just because someone threatens you, does not mean you have to run in fear.
[QUOTE=chimney scott;956606]Well, what will we accomplish by regulating everything so tightly that no one could possibly be able to harm anyone else? First off, it would be nearly impossible. Second off, would it really then be worth it. I know it's scary and all that someone can take a gun, go literally anywhere they please and shoot people like birds.. but it's the reality of the situation. And even if it wasn't possible, some people would find a way to kill others anyway. It's horrible that these things happen, but I believe that instead of inspiring fear and the need for more strict regulation on uncontrollable things, we should be teaching kids that just because someone threatens you, does not mean you have to run in fear.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the reply.
I keep picturing a class of children, let's say 10th grade, and you got your regular mix. You got the Jocks, the Nerds, Emos, etc. And then you got your know-it-all-toughie-bad-ass kid that may have emotional problems that could lead to a school shooting. Try teaching him that just because someone threatens you does not mean that you should run in fear...or retaliate. He's not gonna listen to what the teacher is saying, and most everyone else in the class already knows this. But, in "prison-school" he would be patted down before granted entry onto the campus. He would have trained eyes on him in the class to look for the warning signs. And his "I'm too cool to follow the rules" attitude would SOONER than later get him expelled.
It sounds crazy, I know, but we got used to not taking travel sized toothpaste with us on airplanes. People were annoyed with the all the extra security at airports, but they understood the need for it.
I just thought of a good reason why "Prison-School" wouldn't work. The staff would eventually treat the students like prisoners. Beating them, tazing them without good cause. (Sigh)
Screw it! School is too dangerous. I'm taking online courses from now on, until I figure out a reason why that's too dangerous.
No one has the right to teach us stuff we don't want to learn. That's what our Bill of Constitution's all about.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking "teachers should carry guns"...but then the idea of that scares me as well.