# Did the kid break the law? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 3, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901 "2019-02-03T19:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/1 "2019-02-03T19:53:22Z")
A thirteen-year-old said to Siri, “I am going to shoot up a school.” Siri responded with a list of local schools. The kid posted the conversation on Facebook. Kid was arrested and charged with intimidation. [Link](https://www.foxnews.com/us/indiana-boy-13-arrested-after-telling-siri-he-wanted-to-shoot-up) I understand the gravity of the issue, and the kid should have known better, but I don’t think he committed a crime. Merely showing the oddball (even chilling, in this case) responses of an automated system to oddball questions is not intimidation or a threat of any kind. They’ve established that there was no credible threat and that he made no direct threat to anybody or anything. They should cut the kid loose. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/2 "2019-02-03T20:00:58Z")
My thoughts are they will do exactly that, after putting a bit of fright into everyone who hears about the tale. You can’t joke about bombs at airports, school shootings probably deserve the same treatment. In this day and age, it’s never really appropriate. Are we pretending a thirteen year old doesn’t understand what’s wrong with this? Doing it was one thing, broadcasting it on Facebook escalates it into police attention worthy, in my humble opinion. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/3 "2019-02-03T20:08:40Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > My thoughts are they will do exactly that, after putting a bit of fright into everyone who hears about the tale. You can’t joke about bombs at airports, school shootings probably deserve the same treatment. In this day and age, it’s never really appropriate. I’m betting that the kid will be sent to a mental health facility for a week or so and expelled from his own school (probably with a restraining order that prevents him from attending football games and the like). > [@](#): > > Are we pretending a thirteen year old doesn’t understand what’s wrong with this? “…the kid should have known better…” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/4 "2019-02-03T20:34:07Z")
Expelling and restraining him would not stop someone bent on shooting up a school. Don’t get me wrong he should be expelled and punished (imo) but that’s a false sense of security. Restraining orders can’t stop bullets. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/5 "2019-02-03T20:58:48Z")
Why should he be expelled? People share “dumb-ass things Siri told me” all the time. This is like people sharing the Amazon search results that tried to sell you bomb ingredients when you bought fertilizer - the point is Siri’s total lack of human understanding He should be sat down and lectured for a long time about exactly how and why people are going to interpret anything that starts with “shoot up the school” because he probably didn’t even think someone would take that bit seriously. And then everyone should forget it. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/6 "2019-02-03T21:24:59Z")
I think he should have a bit of a counselling session, a home visit by CPS or LEO, and be told that what he did was inappropriate, and that he should not do it again. If there are guns in the house, they should be removed until it is shown that he is not actually threatening any harm. One of the fallouts of such strong 2A amendment protections is that we are not allowed to take away someone’s guns, even temporarily, without actually charging them and subjecting them to the legal system, and after the fallout of the Parkland shooting local LEO isn’t taking any chances anymore. I see a local story at least once a month, maybe more like once a week, where some kid says something stupid on social media, or other students bring up that a student said something, that can be viewed as threatening. So, rather than being told not to do it again, they are treated as if they were caught in the act of shooting up the school. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/7 "2019-02-03T21:34:29Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If there are guns in the house, they should be removed until it is shown that he is not actually threatening any harm. > > One of the fallouts of such strong 2A amendment protections is that we are not allowed to take away someone’s guns, even temporarily, without actually charging them and subjecting them to the legal system, and after the fallout of the Parkland shooting local LEO isn’t taking any chances anymore. One of the articles mentioned that he did not have access to firearms. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/8 "2019-02-03T21:48:00Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > One of the articles mentioned that he did not have access to firearms. I saw: > [@](#): > > investigators do not believe the boy had access to weapons, according to the Valparaiso Police Department. But that was part of my point, in that investigators should determine whether or not the potential threatener has access to weapons. If they do, then we should be able to, at least temporarily, remove them from the home. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/9 "2019-02-03T22:59:41Z")
I remember back when I was in school that calling in bomb threats was some kinda of prank. We got outta school 2 days one time while they searched the whole school for a bomb. It was never found. After that they cracked down on perceived or actual threats. Those kids caught were put in an alternative learning enviroment. The kid that actually set my highschool on fire was never on the radar. (the school didn’t completely burn down, minimal damage) We never saw him again. All their cracking down did nothing to prevent a bullied student from lashing out. Waste of time and resources. IMO. Lucky he didn’t have a gun, I guess. I don’t think there is a way to prevent these people from trying to kill. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/10 "2019-02-03T23:27:08Z")
It seems to me there’s a pretty big difference between _“Ha ha ha I am going to shoot up a school, I told that to Siri and she gave me a list of schools Haw Haw Haw”_ (and then when the cops show up _“I was just kidding!”)_ and _“I was fooling around with Siri, saying the most outrageous shit I could come up with. I said ‘I am going to shoot up a school’ (which I would NEVER do, I was just fooling around saying the craziest things I could think of to Siri to see what she would do) and instead of linking me to a suicide prevention hotline or something, she gave me a list of local schools! :eek: Yo, Apple, that’s pretty fucked up!”_ The first case, the kid deserves a good smacking around (not literally of course); although, IF there’s nothing beyond that to suggest it was a serious threat, I would hesitate at ruining his life at the age of thirteen. The second case, I don’t even think the kid did anything wrong, really. Kind of a service, arguably. “Hey, Apple, you might want to tweak this a bit…” I _assume_ if you said to Siri (or any of her virtual cousins) “I want to kill myself” that “she” would NOT respond by cheerfully rattling off a list of sure-fire ways to painlessly off oneself, but would instead respond with something like “If you feel like hurting yourself, there are people who can help you” and then giving you the number of the Suicide Prevention Hotline, or something to that effect. Based on that news story, I have no idea which of those scenarios this incident was closer to. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/11 "2019-02-04T00:24:14Z")
Expulsion was appropriate. Most schools went to a zero-tolerance policy, aka The Airport Rule, on these threats long ago.I had a student up for expulsion for “jokingly” threatening to “kill a bunch of kids.” I was on the committee that voted to expel. We never actually expelled him because he was arrested for a violent crime committed months earlier in another state (that we were unaware of). Imagine if we’d just sat him down and scolded him and then he shot up the school. You think we wouldn’t have been wracked with guilt–and found liable? Beyond that, the [FBI warns](https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/hoax-threats-awareness-100518) > [@](#): > > hoax threats of targeted violence against schools and other public places…—even over social media, via text message, or through e-mail—is a federal crime (threatening interstate communications). Those who post or send these threats can receive up to five years in federal prison, or they can face state or local charges. As the OP kid learned the hard way, shit gets real. ---
**Author:** ![UCBearcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/77aa72/32.png) [@UCBearcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UCBearcats)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/12 "2019-02-04T00:47:02Z")
In addition to expelling this kid,cut his nuts off so he doesnt procreate. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/13 "2019-02-04T00:50:24Z")
> [@UCBearcats](#): > > In addition to expelling this kid,cut his nuts off so he doesnt procreate. Because you’re so against violence, right? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/14 "2019-02-04T00:54:42Z")
Bein’ stupid ain’t illegal. ---
**Author:** ![UCBearcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/77aa72/32.png) [@UCBearcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UCBearcats)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/15 "2019-02-04T01:35:33Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Because you’re so against violence, right? It can be in a sterile, medical setting with anesthesia. It doesn’t need to be violent. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/16 "2019-02-04T04:39:52Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Bein’ stupid ain’t illegal. ACTING stupid, on the other hand, is often illegal. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/17 "2019-02-04T08:38:26Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Bein’ stupid ain’t illegal. I think maybe **UCBearcats** ’s point might have been that _PROCREATIN’_ stupid _ought_ to be illegal, and if we can’t manage to get that legislation passed, maybe we can just make it _impossible_, on a case-by-case basis. If a reliably reversible process for bringing that about were to be discovered, I’d at least be willing to discuss the issue of its implementation. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/18 "2019-02-04T11:24:55Z")
Leaving aside the classy discussion of eugenics we have going, this is one of those “and nothing of value was accomplished” stories. If the kid actually wanted to shoot up the school, expelling him isn’t going to make him feel less shooty, and won’t prevent him from shooting it up. If the kid didn’t, we’re harshly punishing a stupid kid for saying something stupid online. Yay. As a parent of a kid entering Middle School soon, I love the conversations we have about all the things he has to be incredibly careful of, because the world will freak out and punish the hell out of him even if he didn’t hurt anyone, mean to hurt anyone, or have the ability to hurt anyone. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/19 "2019-02-04T15:23:01Z")
Maybe Siri should have called the authorities when it got this “request”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901/20 "2019-02-04T15:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > A teenage boy in Indiana was charged with intimidation I’ll reserve comment until the case has been adjudicated. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-kid-break-the-law/828901.md?page=2)