It is the second day of school and already there are probelms.
The 15 year old called to tell me that a girl on the bus threated to get a gun and shoot him. She was ticked because someone told her to shut up and one boy claimed it was my son. The girl went off on my son and tried to humiliate him on the bus. He got off with friends and crossed the street. She followed again taunting him and telling him she was going to get a gun and kill him.
I called the principal and he is going to call them into the office tomorrow morning before class. But I don’t know if I am over-reacting by going to the police. In these days…you never know what is real.
Oh, my!! That is a horrible story; I do believe I would call the police. After all, the girl did technically break the law, I think. (Isn’t threatening to kill someone at least a misdemeanor?) Perhaps you could ask the police to pay a little visit to her parents.
I know it’s a diffcult situation, because you don’t want the girl to retaliate further against your son, but that kind of threat just has to be taken seriously, IMHO.
Call. The. Police. I don’t know where you are, Isabelle, but in California, what that girl did is grounds for a restraining order. No matter what excuse she may have, it’s not worth risking your son.
Calling the police is sort of the default option: You tell them what happened and they decide whether something should be done. You aren’t positioned to make many of the judgements that belong with the police. On the other hand, they’ll bust everybody for every crime they see.
We really aren’t in positions to judge this, IMO. What age are they? What sort of neighborhood do you live in? Do you want your kid to suffer the reprocussions (sp?) he’ll get at school for ratting out somebody? Etc.
I suppose that the safest thing would be to call the non-emergency central dispatch number (it will be in the phone book) and tell them that your such-and-such year old son, in whatever grade, received a death threat on the school bus from a girl who said that she’d get a gun and shoot him. And then ask if this is something the police need to know about.
What she did is most definitely a crime. In Texas it would be assault by threat or terroristic threat. If she’s under 17, depending on the laws in your state, she would probably be handled by the juvenile courts if it got that far. I think law enforcement takes kids shooting kids threats very seriously since the whole Columbine affair. As far as a restraining order – yes, it can be done. She’d have to find her own way to school without taking the same bus. It’s just ridiculous that kids can’t be completely safe at the school. And frankly, if she’s going to threaten to KILL someone just because she thinks they told her to shut up – then she’s not terribly stable and you never know what she might do.
Much better safe than sorry. I think as women we’re conditioned not to make a fuss, but when it comes to your child’s safety – then fuss away!
She said she would kill him. She said how she would kill him. It is not difficult to buy a gun in Florida legally, so the threat is believable.
The police should act on the threat. They should determine which gun it is she though she could ‘get’. (If the parents are gone til 10pm, an easy guess is its one of theirs) They should also make sure that steps are taken where it is secured beyond her access. In the wake of Columbine, I’m Very surprised your school has no ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy in place.
I vote for calling the cops. The girl may be bragging/bluffing but even if that is all it is she needs to STOP. Your child does not deserve the harassment/stress. I can remember bus bullies and school bullies and I was scared. I was just an average kid. I think the only way to stop the behavior is to react harshly. The principal may deal with it but the bottom line is it isn’t his call the police need to be involved.
Although I agree with the others that the authorities should be notified, based on the information you’ve provided, I fail to see how this fits the description of a hate crime.