Name: Judge: First Amendment protected middle schooler's bomb drawing
Brand: jsonline.com
SKU: jsonline-com-60
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Judge: First Amendment protected middle schooler's bomb drawing

preview

Milwaukee Journal SentinelA middle school student who helped a friend draw a picture of a cartoon bomb should not have been convicted of making a terrorist threat, an appeals court judge has ruled.The boy, identified in court records only as A.N.G., was found delinquent on two counts in Waupaca County — disorderly conduct and — as a party to a crime.This week, Court of Appeals Judge Brian Blanchard ordered both adjudications vacated&nbsp;and the delinquency petition dismissed.&nbsp;The boy's "private drawing was not a true threat in the constitutional sense," Blanchard found, but rather the kind of expression protected by&nbsp;the First Amendment."First Amendment protection is so strong that it applies no matter how 'offensive' or 'distasteful'&nbsp;a threatening type of communication might be, so long as it is not a true threat," he wrote.According to the decision:During a summer school class in 2018, A.N.G.'s friend was drawing in a science workbook. A.N.G. contributed ideas, but the friend did all the writing and drawing.The decision does not address whether the other boy was charged, and A.N.G.'s lawyer was not available early Friday.&nbsp;There was “a cartoon-style bomb, a building labeled 'school,'&nbsp;and a body lying on the ground. Around these images are written the following words: 'pigs,' 'preplay,'&nbsp;'bomb,' and 'gun.’ ”&nbsp;The two boys names were also part of the drawing.Two weeks later, the teacher thought the boys were talking in class or possibly passing notes, approached them and confiscated a piece of paper — the page with the drawing. The teacher and an assistant principal questioned the boys then called police, who later searched both boys' houses, but found nothing dangerous or illegal.A.N.G. received an in-school suspension, and prosecutors filed the delinquency actions.&nbsp;A.N.G. tried to get the case&nbsp;dismissed. He argued that he and other boy meant to keep the drawing to themselves, it was not detailed enough to&nbsp;convey any particular threat,&nbsp;there was no reason to think he had a propensity for violence&nbsp;and his school punishment was relatively lenient.The state argued A.N.G. should have reasonably&nbsp;expected others would see the drawing&nbsp;and would perceive it as a threat&nbsp;because he had been counseled six months earlier after telling someone, "Get out of the hallway or I'll turn this place into a shooting gallery."Waupaca County Circuit Judge Troy Nielsen had considered it “impossible," in today's world,&nbsp;that “a student would create a document like this and not assume a reasonable person would interpret” it as a “threat” that was “a serious expression of an intent to do harm.”But in weighing several factors in a test of whether a communication is a "true threat,"&nbsp;Blanchard found the drawing didn't meet the threshold, largely because neither boy meant for anyone else to see the drawing.The school officials' response also suggested they didn't see it as a true threat, he said; they didn't evacuate or search the school or seek to expel A.N.G., in part because he had no known propensity to be violent.A.N.G.'s prior counseling did probably raise his awareness of how seriously school officials take any suggestion of violence, Blanchard said, but the boy still never expected anyone to see the drawing.&nbsp;Lack of intent alone doesn't bar the note from being considered a true threat, but it's one of several factors Blanchard said must be weighed.Conditions attached to a threat are another factor in determining whether it's a "true threat."&nbsp;Blanchard said the drawing's message was&nbsp;vague, but did include a building labeled school, so that factor was a wash.Contact&nbsp;Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187&nbsp;or . Follow&nbsp;him on Twitter at

Milwaukee Journal SentinelA middle school student who helped a friend draw a picture of a cartoon bomb should not have been convicted of making a terrorist threat, an appeals court judge has ruled.The boy, identified in court records only as A.N.G., was found delinquent on two counts in Waupaca County — disorderly conduct and — as a party to a crime.This week, Court of Appeals Judge Brian Blanchard ordered both adjudications vacated&nbsp;and the delinquency petition dismissed.&nbsp;The boy's "private drawing was not a true threat in the constitutional sense," Blanchard found, but rather the...

Judge: First Amendment protected middle schooler's bomb drawing

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS