PV Student Ordered Home After Social Media Threat
A Putnam Valley High School student currently suspended from school is fighting back on social media, after his presence at the school caused a stir throughout the community last week.
The student, a male 14-year-old, allegedly wrote threatening messages on social media last week that led to his suspension from school. After the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office apparently told the parents of the student he could not attend school on Nov. 15, the student got on a bus en route to the campus anyway, but was detained by an assistant principal right away the same morning, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Fan Wills said. He is currently not attending classes, Wills said in an interview last week.
In a Nov. 14 message to the community, Wills said the high school administration was told by a teacher he overheard about “threatening comments” made by this student. The sheriff’s department was contacted and initiated an investigation, which included questioning the student’s parent. It was determined by the sheriff’s office the student did not pose a threat to the district, Wills said.
Later that evening on Nov. 14 though, a concerning social media post was allegedly made by the same student and brought to the attention of the district administration, which again contacted the sheriff’s office. At that point, school officials decided they did not want the student on campus and when the sheriff’s investigators went to the home again, the parents were told not to send their child to school Thursday, Wills said.
One social media message that raised red flags was the following:
“F— Putnam valley and f— the police, 5 days after some sh– I said, two f– faces exaggerated it and a teacher overheard it and the school flipped sh–. Let’s keep a long story short, I had my house raided and my gun taken. Whoever f—ed up is going to have one hell of a problem tomorrow u made a big mistake buddy.”
In an interview, Wills said an “old shotgun” was removed from the home of the student Wednesday night. A sheriff’s spokeswomen had no knowledge of a weapon being taken from the home when contacted by The Putnam Examiner last week.
No arrests were made regarding the incident. When the student was taken away by the assistant principal, he had no weapon on him, Wills stressed. He was taken to the principal’s office and his parents were called.
“This student never made any threat to use a weapon against the school,” Wills said. “The (social media) posts were questionable, that’s what was concerning.”
The student, whose name is being withheld by The Putnam Examiner because he is a minor, posted a more than 1,000 word message on Facebook in a community group page from his mother’s account giving his side of events and apologizing for some of his actions.
The student claimed his trouble began when he “jokingly” said he wanted to shoot up CNN. When a teacher overheard him, she approached him and told him that type of statement was inappropriate and she would have to report his comments to the administration, the student wrote. He wrote he received in-house suspension for one day. The following day, when he got home his parents told him the sheriff’s office came to their house and took an old shotgun. From there, the student confirmed he posted the threatening message toward the school, but before he was able to delete it without anyone seeing it, the sheriff’s office again came to house and this time they forced him to go to Putnam Hospital Center for a mental evaluation.
He claimed the psychologist that spoke with him told him he was OK and he also claimed the sheriff’s department never told him not to go to school the next day. But when he arrived at school, he was taken away by an assistant principal and a sheriff’s officer and has been suspended five days with a superintendent’s hearing this week, he wrote.
“I don’t know who started a viscous lie about me wanting to hurt anyone,” the student wrote. “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
The Putnam Examiner spoke with the student’s father on Monday, who verified the Facebook post came from his son. The father also said the family has hired an attorney, Peter Tilen, of a White Plains firm. A call to Tilem was not returned before press time.
The Putnam sheriff’s office declined comment, with a spokeswoman only stating school administrators told the minor and the parent that the minor was not allowed on campus, which appears contradictory to school officials stating the sheriff’s office told the student not to attend school.
Wills declined to comment on the Facebook post because of student privacy laws and could not reveal the punishment the student could or has already faced.
“I will say only that social media presents a challenge for school districts as we attempt to keep our schools safe,” Wills stated. “We have to balance the rights of individual students with the right of a safe environment for all of our students. We strive for ‘freedom from fear’ as a prerequisite for teaching and learning–our core mission. “
