Parents say son had no role in school threats

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, June 23, 2007

The family appears before school officials, saying the 16-year-old did not author notes.

The island is too small, they said, and the speculation too widespread for them to remain silent.

So near the end of a week in which their son was arrested but not charged with any crime, the parents of a 16-year-old Bainbridge High School student sought to assure school officials the youth wasn’t involved in the threat of violence that canceled classes at BHS Monday.

“We can tell you that, based on our own ‘investigation,’ which we have pursued as rigorously and objectively as any parents could, we are convinced that our son is not the person who posted these threats of violence,” said the student’s father, reading aloud a written statement to the school board on Thursday. “We are not asking anyone to accept this definitively and we respect the need for the police to complete their own work.

“At the same time, given the public perceptions that have already been created without a full sense of the facts, we believe it is fair for the school district and the community to be aware of our information and conclusions.”

Bainbridge Police did not return calls for comment Friday on the status of the investigation.

The incident began Monday when BHS staff found posted at the school several computer-generated letters threatening gun violence toward specific students and the school at large.

A 16-year-old student was arrested Monday evening on suspicion of first-degree computer trespass, as well as explosives and drug charges, police said, but has not been explicitly connected to the threat at the high school.

Because no charges have been filed, the Review is not releasing the suspect’s name, nor those of his parents.

The arrest came after police served a search warrant on the family’s home, where they found bomb-making materials in and around a shed on the property, along with eight small marijuana plants, according to court documents.

No guns were found at the home, police said.

The impetus behind the warrant was an alleged computer trespass incident that the suspect later admitted to committing, authorities said.

The youth intentionally gained unauthorized access to the computer system of one of the students named in the threats, and, once inside, changed the girl’s email passwords and uploaded pornographic images to her website.

After appearing in court Tuesday, the youth was released on $2,500 bail to the custody of his parents. He is to remain under their supervision at all times until his next court appearance on June 27.

In the family’s statement – given with the permission of their attorney – to the school board Thursday, the boy’s father began by introducing his family, including his wife and three of their five children, who were also in attendance.

He said the family has lived on the island for 15 years, and has been actively involved in the PTO and schools in general, an assertion later reiterated by Superintendent Ken Crawford.

Then the man addressed the threat to the BHS campus.

“This has certainly been a difficult week for Bainbridge Island students, parents, the school district and the community in general as it has struggled to deal deal with horrible threats of apparent violence to students at Bainbridge High School,” he said. “It has certainly been a trying week for my family, too.”

He told of the family’s decision to go public following continued speculation, including misinformation heard by one of the boy’s siblings at an athletic practice.

He went on to address rumors and allegations concerning his son, saying that he and his wife knew the whereabouts of all of their children between early Saturday and mid-day Monday. According to police, the threats were discovered at about 7 a.m. on Monday.

The bomb-making materials, he said, were last used nine months ago to make special effects for amateur movies to which their son contributes.

“In fact one of these movies that featured an explosion special effect involved over a dozen BHS students and one faculty member,” the father said. “The movie was actually shown in the BHS Commons and seen by dozens of faculty members and students.”

The son’s name, he said, was listed in the film’s credits under “special effects.”

Regarding the more than 30 computers found by police during the search of the home, the father said the boy bought them for $30 from a police auction in Kent, adding that he has donated some of them to various causes in the community and will use some for his senior year project before disposing of the rest.

“I can only imagine what image that conjures up,” he said. “We don’t have a computer data-center in our house.”

The family’s statement didn’t mention the allegations of computer trespass or the growing of marijuana for which the youth faces possible charges.

In response, Crawford said the school district worked in “lock-step” with the police department as it released information to parents and the media.

School Board President Bruce Weiland added that the district’s primary goal is student and staff safety.

“It’s not our role to pre-judge,” he said. “We’re just trying to run safe schools.”