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School kids in custody for making threats By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- An 11-year-old Ashland Middle School student was taken into custody Tuesday for making threats of violence at his school -- one of seven similar arrests of Jackson County students since school began this fall. "The world presents kids with a lot of choices and sometimes they max out and make the wrong choices," said Alan Young, director of the Jackson County juvenile department. "If they aren't socially mature or suffer from conduct disorders, you have problems." Two students were taken to juvenile detention Tuesday for making threats at their schools: the 11-year-old Ashland boy and a 14-year-old Prospect boy. Juvenile authorities also got reports of two other Jackson County students making threats on Tuesday, although arrests hadn't been made in those cases. Young said the suspects were a 9-year-old Medford boy and a 10-year-old Rogue River boy. "When kids do this they are crying out for help," said Ashland Middle School Principal Dale Rooklyn. "It's our job to help these kids find healthy ways to vent their frustrations and become parts of the community, instead of feeling so isolated." Of the seven cases this school year, only one involved a weapon: a pair of scissors broken and used in a threatening manner, Young said. The others involved only verbal threats, which usually translate into a misdemeanor charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, or menacing. Of the seven cases, two occurred in high schools, one in a middle school and the remainder in elementary schools, Young said. Since Jan. 1, 1999, 60 students have been identified as making threats at their schools, Young said. Some of them have been referred to counseling, while others were placed in detention. Young said officials are more aggressively pursuing cases of threats of violence in the wake of recent school shootings. A federal grant has allowed the juvenile department to hire an extra probation officer and counselor. "When you have kids making very, very, very serious threats of violence towards others, even though the criminal laws don't define them as serious crimes, they are serious to the victim and the environment of the school," he said. "We are focusing more and more on younger kids, because we are seeing a big increase in crimes of violence committed by young kids." In the past two weeks, four Jackson County children under the age of 12 were admitted to the secure psychiatric hospital unit at Mercy Hospital in Roseburg, the only secure hospital setting for kids south of Portland. In the Ashland case, the 11-year-old made threats to several different students in several different classes on Monday, said Ashland police Capt. Mike DeCapua. "He did not have any means on him of carrying out the threats, so there was no immediate danger to anyone at the school," DeCapua said. Rooklyn said school officials were fortunate this week. "I'm glad in this case we had students who reported it to teachers," he said. "He had been talking to other kids in class about threats in general and referring back to Columbine and trench coats." Police found the boy cutting school at his home Tuesday and took him to the juvenile detention facility. DeCapua and Young both declined to characterize the threats made by the boy or others. He was being kept overnight for evaluation, DeCapua said. Rooklyn said while the school has a responsibility for educating students, it isn't required to do that on the school grounds. If, after reviewing court records they determine a child isn't safe in the school setting, they can choose to educate that child at home. "If we find that the child made the comments in jest, we will work with the child in another way," he said. "We will try to get the child the help they need to make the child a positive person." The 11-year-old has had several contacts with juvenile authorities the past. In 1996, he was referred to Services for Children and Families because of concerns for his care. Then in the spring and summer of 1999, he was charged with second- and third-degree theft and was referred to Ashland's youth diversion program. In July, he was reported to police as a runaway. Young said there was no indication of violence in his record. Young said awareness of school violence was heightened after the deadly shooting at Springfield's Thurston High School in May 1998. The shooting inspired the Safe School Compact -- which defines the roles of schools, police, mental health, the district attorney and the juvenile department in keeping schools safe. Rooklyn said he believes students always have found ways to cry out for help, but the media attention on school shootings has led kids to using that as a means to make their cries heard. Young believes the threats always have been taken seriously, but only recently have agencies begun to work together to address the situations so quickly. "We certainly are taking a more aggressive stance, especially in the school setting, because it has the potential for causing harm to both kids and the school staff," Young said. "We aren't going to put up with threatening and harmful behavior in the schools." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA