— In North Carolina, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina affirmed the juvenile adjudication of a student for “Communicating a Threat to Commit Mass Violence on Educational Property” in violation of state law. The student argued that “there was insufficient evidence (that he) communicated a threat to commit mass violence on educational property… (and) there was no evidence (his) statement constituted a true threat and, as such, was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Both the trial court and the appellate court disagreed, stating that “True Threats’ encompass those statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals. The speaker need not actually intend to carry out the threat. Rather, a prohibition on true threats ‘protects individuals from the fear of violence’ and from the disruption that fear engenders, in addition to protecting people ‘from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur.” In this case, “the State’s evidence did provide evidence of the context in which (the student) alleged threat was made. The evidence showed a group of students was gathered waiting to leave their chorus class to go to lunch when (the student) made the statement that he was “going to shoot up the school.” Two student-bystanders…testified consistent with each other that they heard the statement…(and were) scared enough to report the threat right away. (Another student) testified it made him sick to his stomach.” In Re D.R.F.
— In Indiana, the Governor “announced 474 schools were approved for the state grants…the bulk of that money is dedicated to putting more school resource officers in the schools. More than $19 million of this school safety grant will be invested in hiring more of them or paying for those already employed at the schools.”
— In West Virginia, Superintendents, principals, teachers, and police from around the state are discussing how to protect children online, believing that “kid’s lives are increasingly spent online, improving its safety regulations are more important than ever before.” All officials are “learning about online threats to children” from the FBI and the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security. They are being told that, “there are predators out there, there are certain groups being formed that actually prey on our children, get them to send them a picture or something that could possibly be inappropriate and hold that over their head, which causes children to have anxiety and do things that they normally would not do.”
— In New Hampshire, an MOU between the Lebanon School District and Police Department “would provide a specially trained officer to the schools to assist in safety, educational programs and other support services — but eliminate the daily police presence in a single school building.”