Senior prank or felony crime?

[Coffee whisky bacon OMENTUM???]

myfox8.com/2015/05/29/senior-prank-lands-two-north-carolina-students-in-jail-on-felony-charges/

I'm thinking it might be an overreaction, but I can definitely see how it could be mistaken for a bomb scare situation - it would be sort of creepy to be walking through the halls and a bunch of "abandoned" lockers are suddenly ringing. But this is really hard to decide upon IMO. Appropriate reaction in your opinion should be....?

[Teg]

I definitely think that this is an over-reaction. Firstly, they found NO BOMBS. Secondly, they were just alarm clocks making an annoying sound. Senior students have pranks every year no matter what. Granted, this wasn't very original, nor funny by any means and I can totally understand where the staff and police are coming from. But, ruining two kids lives for what was clearly a harmless prank is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[Graham]

Stupid and possibly irresponsible, but harmless. Probably an overreaction.

[wildgoosespeeder]

It takes one person that easily gets overly panicked or takes things way too seriously to ruin something intentionally annoying but harmless. Also there had to have been people watching these kids as they were setting up the prank. In my high school at least, I remember there being staff all over the place in the school watching the halls. If there was something suspicious going on, I would think one of the staff members would stop the kids from progressing further with the prank if it was potentially hazardous.

[Former Member]

A clear misunderstanding. Whoever charged them should serve double the time these kids get if found guilty and be forced to pay their legal fees regardless of the outcome.

[Former Member]

May 29, 2015 18:38:55 GMT -8 Teg said:

I definitely think that this is an over-reaction. Firstly, they found NO BOMBS. Secondly, they were just alarm clocks making an annoying sound. Senior students have pranks every year no matter what. Granted, this wasn't very original, nor funny by any means and I can totally understand where the staff and police are coming from. But, ruining two kids lives for what was clearly a harmless prank is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

  To be totally honest .. I couldnt put it any better myself !!

 Good job Teg

  Dave

[T.C.]

Some pranks are just not funny, and fake bomb scare or not, this is one of those pranks that shouldn't be done.
With the ever present possibility in our schools of innocent people being killed by school shooters or terrorists, i believe they deserve to be charged, more than likely it will be reduced to a misdemeanor but a message needs to be sent to them.

[♥ ℒʊ√ ♥]

T.C., I agree with you.

In this day and age where there have been deadly incidents in schools, even harmless intent, can cause grave concern.


A felony charge is a bit far-reaching and hopefully, cooler heads will more than likely prevail. A misdemeanor is more appropriate now that the incident is behind them and no harm was meant or done.

[_RainbowxWolf_]

I really think there over reacting. But i can understand that they thought it was a bomb. But still though what ever they have done, they should have thought it out more first before doing this prank.

[Boy_Wonder]

To call it a bomb hoax to me is totally overreacting.

I mean by that logic someone who accidentally forgot to pick a bag up on public transport should be charged similarly.

I see it as just a bit of fun and a harmless prank and they shouldn't end up with a criminal record BECAUSE of it. Because it wasn't like they texted "I've planted a bomb and its going to go off when the alarm clocks start ringing" they just hid alarm clocks in disused lockers

[Derek‽]

I'm sure the kids involved never even thought about a bomb scare when they were planning this prank... because they don't live in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon and their first instinct isn't to slap the nearest alarm clock onto a bundle of ACME-branded dynamite.

Seriously though, my first instinct upon hearing a chorus of screeching alarm clocks wouldn't be that there was a bomb. Real life isn't like a cheesy action flick where explosive devices inexplicably beep incessantly and have big, bright digital displays counting down to boom time. If an alarm clock were to be used in a bomb, its trigger event would be used to ignite the primer charge, just like when cell phones are used. Does this school district assume a ringing cell phone left in a locker is a bomb? I'm sure that happens many times throughout the year. Is the owner of that locker brought up on felony charges?

If there was any intent to cause a panic, by all means, throw the book at them. I highly doubt that was the case. It seems more likely that they only sought to annoy the staff members charged with pinpointing and deactivating the shrill little noise-makers.

Sometimes innocent situations can reasonably be mistaken as credible threats, but I'm not entirely convinced this is one of those situations.

[T.C.]

May 31, 2015 3:10:42 GMT -8 Boy_Wonder said:

To call it a bomb hoax to me is totally overreacting.

I mean by that logic someone who accidentally forgot to pick a bag up on public transport should be charged similarly.

I see it as just a bit of fun and a harmless prank and they shouldn't end up with a criminal record BECAUSE of it. Because it wasn't like they texted "I've planted a bomb and its going to go off when the alarm clocks start ringing" they just hid alarm clocks in disused lockers

Forgetting to pick up a backpack and deliberately placing alarm clocks that make a ticking sound in school lockers is not a good comparison.

It's fairly obvious that they wanted to scare kids/teachers, not annoy people with alarms going off randomly.The only difference in what they did vs. a telephonic bomb threat is they didn't call. Whether they intended to or not, they didn't get a chance due to school staff hearing the ticking clocks coming from padlocked lockers that weren't previously padlocked. That's a Bomb Threat.

I for one would have been highly stressed if i had a child or loved one at that school. If those kids think scaring people in that manner after all the tragic events we've already had at our schools is funny they have larger issues than the charges they face.

[Ameline]

Ladies and gentlemen the biggest overreaction award goes to ....

Seriously though are the people in charge over there high? Good grief I can only imagine that people get charged for making a bomb threat just by having something they say taken out of context or leaving their cell phone on during class.

May 31, 2015 7:00:17 GMT -7 T.C.. said:
Tinselled Loki Avatar

May 31, 2015 4:10:42 GMT -7 Boy_Wonder said:
To call it a bomb hoax to me is totally overreacting.

I mean by that logic someone who accidentally forgot to pick a bag up on public transport should be charged similarly.

I see it as just a bit of fun and a harmless prank and they shouldn't end up with a criminal record BECAUSE of it. Because it wasn't like they texted "I've planted a bomb and its going to go off when the alarm clocks start ringing" they just hid alarm clocks in disused lockers

Forgetting to pick up a backpack and deliberately placing alarm clocks that make a ticking sound in school lockers is not a good comparison.

It's fairly obvious that they wanted to scare kids/teachers, not annoy people with alarms going off randomly.The only difference in what they did vs. a telephonic bomb threat is they didn't call. Whether they intended to or not, they didn't get a chance due to school staff hearing the ticking clocks coming from padlocked lockers that weren't previously padlocked. That's a Bomb Threat.

I for one would have been highly stressed if i had a child or loved one at that school. If those kids think scaring people in that manner after all the tragic events we've already had at our schools is funny they have larger issues than the charges they face.

I don't know, I think thats a bit of a stretch. If I heard an annoying ticking sound from a locker I wouldn't freak out and think it was a bomb even with everything going on.

[Tumbleweed]

I've never been around a bomb so don't know what a "ticking bomb" might sound like. So if I had heard it I wouldn't be stupid and stick around, I'd go report it and then stay away. But for this to be a felony for those kids is ridiculous. Pranks in high school is a given. At most the school should punish them but not by suspending them as they love having days off. Maybe make them do extra school work or do some crap jobs like cleaning the bathrooms. ha ha They need to be punished with something they hate. I'll take back my words if we find out their intention was to make the school think it was a bomb. Then let the law slap them with community service for a long time but nothing on their permanent record. 

[T.C.]

I'm pretty certain that school officials are on a heightened alert due to past instances and instead of "Freaking Out" as you say, they did the responsible thing and called the police.

It's obvious their intent was to simulate a ticking bomb and scare the crap out of people.

It doesn't matter what that there was a safe outcome, what matters is that they committed an act that was meant to terrorize people and need to be made an example of.