Elwood school, police investigate "Death List"

I attend the high school in Elwood with this kid. I have known this kid for about one year. Nothing in his actions would ever lead me to believe he would ever act out at these people. He has always been a nice kid from my views and it is very disappointing to hear this news. Hopefully he will learn from his actions, even if this whole plot was a joke.

I don't think it would be considered a joke when someone takes the time to write out more than 50 names of people who annoy him and write Death List at the top. I am glad the school is not just trying to sweep this incident under the rug and that they did take it serious enough to call the police and the parents of the students on the list. I understand that it is hurtful to be called names and be made fun of but that doesn't make it right, to write out a Death List. And know body knows if that boy would have followed through with it. Maybe he didn't plan on doing anything right now but what if the bullying kept up and he eventually did act on it. I do feel sorry for the boy about the bullying and I hope he gets help with how to deal with situations like that.

If the schools had harsher anti-bullying laws this young man would of never made the list. He did not act on anything and should recieve counseling and support, NOT be expelled. I know in this day in age it is hard to fathom the violence we have seen but give this kid a break. We need to intervene and help our children. They are full of emotions and hormones at this age they do not know what to do. I am glad he did not act upon anything and pray that the schools offer more guidance to our children.

It is sad what has resulted in "bullying". The children, and that is what they are, take on a lot of pressure to "fit in". If there is one person outside that "click", they are targeted. You see so much in the news these days about luring someone in to video the confrontation or beating to put out on the web for the world to watch. Here is the result. The one being bullied retaliates in the only way they know how. Sad, so sad what we, as parents, have raised our children into. It is OUR fault. We let them "slide" with little things, but it's a snowball effect, adding to each incident, one after the other. I feel for this teen, he may have made a BAD choice, but he is the first victim, but not the last.

"Bullying" needs to be further explained to our children. I talked with my daughters just the other night about this. They think "bullying" is when you physically assault someone. I had to explain to them that "teasing", "making fun", and saying mean things to other children is considered bullying also. They were shocked to know that THEY had been bullying.. Schools need to be more proactive with this rather than wait until something like this happens and react!!

Get this idiot out of the schools.He was at least thinking along the lines of hurting someone and as a parent I would not be willing to take "it was just a joke" or any other excuse for that matter! Lock him up before he acts on these threats!

When my oldest son was in grade school, a bunch of kids who liked to pick on him were "bored" at lunch and decided to beat him up. They formed a circle around him, threw him to the ground repeatedly, kicked him, punched him, ect. The playground aides stood by watching. When my ex-husband and I arrived at school, we got the names of the boys from my son and gave them to the principle. The school did NOTHING! The same boys went after my other son the next day in retailiation. I ended up pulling my sons out of school for the rest of the year and homeschooled them. I wish the schools would go after the bullies and deal with them as harshly as the bullies "deal" with their victims. My son is now 26 and still has bad memories of that incident. By the way, he ended up with bruised kidneys, a sprained back, and blood in his stools for a week.

Just because no "alarms" were sent off doesn't mean a person is incapable of carrying out those plans. It's because of attitudes like that that we've had cases were the shootings were actually carried out. I think it's fair he be expelled and receive counseling until he's better

Lisa wrote:

I attend the high school in Elwood with this kid. I have known this kid for about one year. Nothing in his actions would ever lead me to believe he would ever act out at these people. He has always been a nice kid from my views and it is very disappointing to hear this news. Hopefully he will learn from his actions, even if this whole plot was a joke.

unfortunately, there have been more severe cases where people "thought" that someone was nice and incapable of hurting someone and in the end they were wrong. this isn't a risk worth taking

Well, apparently free speech and personal property rights are not on the curriculum in that school.....

He made no threat, did nothing wrong, and is likely just bored by substandard teaching so he made a list for himself to entertain himself.

OK so we are going to expel a 14-15 year old kid because he made a "death" list that was ripped out of his notebook? The kid should get in trouble but I think warrents should be filed on all the kids lockers to find all the lists and stuff. you would probably expel about 1/3 of the kids in the school. When is it OK to snoop in someones notebook then forcibly take something out of it anyway? Unless this kid has some history that is not being reported then this is way overboard. I can't beleive we pay people to make these desicions. How much of a fearful society anyway? it is pathetic. give the kid some detentions after school and call it good. Fear Fear Fear come on what a bunch of crap. oh the girl who ripped out the pages should be charged with assault just like I would be if I did that to someone downtown. If we are going to be so trigger happy on punishment.

Parents - you need to keep dialog open with your kids! This boy needs some attention (obviously) or would not have been so careless to leave that list sticking out for another student to grab! The kids that picked on or annoyed him need to be called into a meeting with him and given opportunity to vent their feelings in a safe environment. He should be allowed to vent his feelings as well. If a disabled child had made this list, would the school officials be suspending him? This kid has been emotionally paralyzed by how he has been treated. This is a cry for help...so help him!

Louis wrote:

Well, apparently free speech and personal property rights are not on the curriculum in that school.....
He made no threat, did nothing wrong, and is likely just bored by substandard teaching so he made a list for himself to entertain himself.

In this day and age nothing like this list can be taken lightly. If there is a "Death List" with 50 names on it, I feel that this goes beyond this student's free speech. This is s situation where it is better to err on the side of caution. No one can assume that he was just bored and made this up for something to do to pass the time. As for his personal property rights, what about the rights of the people on the list?

In my opinion they should expel the boy from school and do mental check up on him and talk to the people on the list so they can see why or what did they do to him that caused him to write their name down. Maybe councilor can help out the school students to talk about discriminating other and calling people names.

Fine - expell the only actual real victim in the case.

But how about we take a look at the names of the kids on the list and realize that their actions towards this student are what started this whole thing to begin with. Maybe they need counseling and instruction on how to treat other students.

i think that it is stupid what people do these days

"Do I feel that something was going to come of this? No. I don't think something would've come of this had we not intervened."

"The superintendent said there's nothing in the boy's disciplinary record that would send off any alarms"

Just like ALLLL the other past nuts who woke up with murder on their minds.
The superintendent and people with that type of mind frame are apart of the problem, nothing ever becomes real to them until after the massacre. When all the fingers are pointing his way asking "Were there any warning signs to prevent this?"

John Q wrote:

<quoted text>
In this day and age nothing like this list can be taken lightly. If there is a "Death List" with 50 names on it, I feel that this goes beyond this student's free speech. This is s situation where it is better to err on the side of caution. No one can assume that he was just bored and made this up for something to do to pass the time. As for his personal property rights, what about the rights of the people on the list?

The people on the list obviously picked on this kid so bad that he wanted to hurt them, so in my opinion they have no rights. Why aren't they being expelled from school? The people on the list are all like, oh I'm a victim. I was on the list....Well in my opinion if they weren't jerks in the first place their names wouldn't be on the list.

Okay wrote:

Fine - expell the only actual real victim in the case.
But how about we take a look at the names of the kids on the list and realize that their actions towards this student are what started this whole thing to begin with. Maybe they need counseling and instruction on how to treat other students.

I completely agree with you.

Democracy is a hypocrisy because its ran by the plutocracy -- Malcom X

Give me liberty or give me death!!!