Saturday, April 22, 2006

TROUBLES IN RIVERTON

A few thoughts on the story from Riverton, Kan., where five teens are in jail, suspected of planning a shoot-em-up at their high school:

They're all boys, of course. All between 16 and 18 years of age. All arrested Thursday, the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings.

According to the Associated Press:
[S]chool officials learned that a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com, authorities said.

A Cherokee County Sheriff's deputy drives through the parking lot at Riverton High School, in Riverton, Kan. Friday, April 21, 2006. Boys, ranging in age from 16 to 18, were arrested Thursday ... just hours before they planned to shoot fellow students and school employees, authorities said ...

Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman said the teens planned to disable the school's security camera system before staging their attack Thursday. Sheriff's deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect and documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects' school lockers.
Authorities are talking big about filing charges next week, when they can "get it together." But a lot of this story sounds like overreaction.

Let's see, a teenager in Kansas has guns and ammo -- and knives -- in his room? Yeah, so what's the point? He lives in a town of 600 people in southeast Kansas. People in small towns in the Midwest have guns and knives.

Two other teens had "references to Armageddon" in their lockers. Um-hmm. Could be a Bible. Could be typical angst-ridden teen bullshit.

All of the hype could be true, too. But in the zeal to stop future Columbines from happening, it's too easy to overreact to punks talking smack.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bullshit is the right word ok..Most of the knives were collector type and pocket knives...Pretty scary shit allright!! LOL..Every kid in the area has about the same thing..Some of the other stuff in the evidence bin is a spiderman game A book"Hunt for Red October"A "Simon and Garfunkle" music disk "The Sims" and Homer Simpson "Road Rage"The rest of the the items are even sillier.One kids homework,A report over WW2 weaponry was displayed prominetley..Weird Huh !

Anonymous said...

sounds like a major mess to me..Gonna check out more on the net