From a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Oct. 1) about new federal reporting requirements for public schools regarding student discipline, Grits ran across this fact-bite: "Statewide, a total of 1,463 Texas students were cited for making a
terrorist threat during the 2013-14 school year, according to Texas
Education Agency PEIMS (Public Education Information Management System)
data."
I hadn't seen that figure during all the "I stand with Ahmed" brouhaha, but that's a pretty big number.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that they are using old terminology and this isn't a case of thousands of potential jihadis. Many older criminal codes use the term "terrorist threat" to mean essentially threats to do harm. In California, for example, the statute "criminal threat" used to be "terrorist threat" until a few years back, when legislators worried about the possible implications of a "terrorist" misdemeanor showing up on people's record and changed it.
In Texas, Penal Code Section 22.07 defines the offense of "Terroristic Threat." Depending on the particular facts of the case, the offense is a Class B misdemeanor, a Class A misdemeanor, or a felony of the third degree.
ReplyDeleteThat is true in Texas. If you threaten to assault someone, that is a terroristic threat.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were building clocks
ReplyDeleteMaking a terroristic threat at school can be as simple as stating, "I have a knife in my pocket, leave me alone" or saying, "If I wanted to, I could hit you with this notebook and you would shut up." Making the boast that, "My dad can beat the s_ _t of your dad" can be construed as threatening. Much depends on how the school views the incident and the students involved. Sometimes who gets charged comes down to who gets to tell the story first or who is a girl and who is a boy.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see the statistic broken down and how many of the kids charged were in middle school.