GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Two former Green Bay Preble High School students who worked together to create a social media post threatening a school shooting were found delinquent Tuesday in juvenile court. The terms of their sentence includes writing at least a two-page paper on the impact of actual school shootings, and participating in victim impact panels created specifically after a series of school threats in December.
State law prohibits the media from identifying those being prosecuted in juvenile court.
During the course of a one-week span in December, there were three separate social media threats against Preble High. Four students face charges in juvenile court for those incidents.
One of the threats involved an Instagram post created by two 16-year-old girls, which included a backstory about a bullied student and an image of a gun. The teens did not have a weapon, and there was no intent to harm, police have said. Both were expelled by the Green Bay Area Public School District, their attorneys said.
While originally charged with the juvenile court version of making a terrorist threat, the state moved to reduce the charges to disorderly conduct with a threat to use a dangerous weapon.
That charge is not a felony, noted Assistant District Attorney Kari Hoffman. But since neither teen had previous contacts with the police or juvenile court, the reduced charge is appropriate and would not have same long-term impacts on their futures, Hoffman said during the separate hearings.
Judge Tammy Jo Hock was concerned with the change. While a “terrorist threat” may conjure thoughts of something on a much grander scale, she was worried that the disorderly conduct count could be considered “nominal” and “minimal” given the fear the two created. But, without an appropriate charge somewhere in between, Hock accepted the change with “great reservation,” she said at one hearing.
The first teen, whose idea it was to create the post, pleaded no contest and offered a short statement: “I want to apologize.”
While police said the girl had described the post as a joke, Judge Hock seized on comments the girl made to police that she wanted to scare people, and to get out school. Hock called the decision-making “shocking.”
“You lacked all judgment in this situation,” Judge Hock said.
The second teen, who wrote and posted the item on social media, entered a plea to “admit” to the count. She read a statement which lasted more than two minutes. She called the post a “horrible mistake” which she “wholeheartedly regrets.” She didn’t intend to cause such panic. The girl called the night she spent in juvenile detention as “longest, most horrifying day of my life,” which she promised not to repeat. The teen also expressed concern about how the incident could hurt her long-term career plans.
Judge Hock encouraged her to use the terms of the sentence to take advantage of the terms of supervision to learn from the incident, and encouraged her to still pursue those goals.
In both cases, Judge Hock placed them on supervision by the county for a year, ordered them to perform 100 hours of community service, write a letter of apology to the school district, and they must stay off social media during the year on supervision.
Judge Hock’s sentence went beyond that recommended the county human services department, prosecutors, and the defense attorneys, however, as she repeatedly tried to impress on the teens the way other students, parents, teachers, the school district, and the community were impacted by one social media post.
“The chaos that ensued as a result can’t be overlooked,” Judge Hock said during the second hearing. “It’s the fear, it’s the panic that students and parents felt that a shooting could happen at their school.”
She ordered both girls to research actual school shootings – the judge cited Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Oxford, Mich. as examples – and write at least a two-page paper on the impact of those shootings, and why the threat they made caused such fear in this community.
Additionally, the judge ordered both to participate in victim-impact panels being specially created by the county’s human services department in light of the incidents at Preble and an incident a week later, when a gun was brought to East High School.
Xao Thao, a case manager with the Brown County Youth Justice Department, said the county is planning an eight-week session for the teens to meet with those impacted by the threats, including police officers.
As for the other two teens charged in connection with the threats at Preble, one is expected in court Wednesday, while an arrest warrant was issued for the other after he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and did not show up for court Monday.
The week after the threats at Preble, a student brought a gun to East High. Two students were found delinquent in those cases.
A 15-year-old boy who provided the gun — and also was found delinquent for a series of other incidents — was placed on two years of supervision in an out-of-home setting. Specifically, he was placed at Rawhide Youth Services near New London. He must also perform 100 hours of community service.
The 16-year-old girl who brought the gun was placed on supervision for a year, and must perform 100 hours of community service.
The combination of the threats led the school district to place all middle and high schools into online learning for several days in December. No one was injured in any of the events.