Middle School Student Threatens Berkeley Classmates, Staff

Middle School Student Threatens Berkeley Classmates, Staff

By WYDaily Staff Friday, March 04, 2011

Williamsburg police have charged a Berkeley Middle School student with threats to commit serious harm to a person on school property.

The police obtained petitions to charge the juvenile from the Ninth District Court Services Unit at about 2 p.m. Friday. The name of the subject is being withheld because he is a minor.

Williamsburg police Maj. Greg Riley said police received a call Thursday night from a third party who passed on the information about the threat.

Police have identified a juvenile student as the perpetrator, Riley said, but are withholding his name because of his age.

"There is no evidence at this time that there is a continuing threat to the school, which is operating its normal schedule," Riley said.

Williamsburg-James City County schools spokesman Greg Davy said there were no plans to contact parents of Berkeley students because "it was determined students were never in any imminent danger."

Comments

0 #14 Guest 2011-03-06 20:09

Quoting Day Late:

To Cindy - what WY Daily didn't note that VA Gazette DID note is that there had been a tipoff at 7:30 on Thursday night! That would be approx 18 1/2 hours before the warrant was obtained; possibly placing our children and the staff at risk. Some parents were there on Friday morning and saw a number of police with paperwork milling around...my child also stated there were a lot of police there which is unusual. To Sandy...maybe the alleged offender is a victim of bullies and it has nothing to do with the parents. Sometimes a mental illness skips generations and it doesn't matter how good or how much the parents taught the child before going to school.

Actually, WYDaily did note that word of the threat came the night before. See the third paragraph.

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0 #13 Guest 2011-03-06 20:06

To Cindy - what WY Daily didn't note that VA Gazette DID note is that there had been a tipoff at 7:30 on Thursday night! That would be approx 18 1/2 hours before the warrant was obtained; possibly placing our children and the staff at risk. Some parents were there on Friday morning and saw a number of police with paperwork milling around...my child also stated there were a lot of police there which is unusual. To Sandy...maybe the alleged offender is a victim of bullies and it has nothing to do with the parents. Sometimes a mental illness skips generations and it doesn't matter how good or how much the parents taught the child before going to school.

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+2 #12 Guest 2011-03-06 14:21

As in most cases that deal with the inadequacy of public education, the parents of the offending child are left out of the equation. The school system can only do so much to educate a child- the parents are the first teachers and hopefully the first people to teach their children the morals necessary to function well in a democratic society. If the school is suffering, check out the parents of the kids that go there.

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+1 #11 Guest 2011-03-05 18:56

My grandson has been gettng threats and being bulled at ths shool all year. Because of this he ats out and has been suspended one that I know of and has been in trouble with those that make the decisons all year.This just lets me know that the people that are suppose to be keeping our chldrens welfare in mind all the time are not dong there jobs. It's a complete shame that this is goingon !!!!!

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+1 #10 Guest 2011-03-05 14:58

This student will most likely spend some time in juvenile incarceration rather than receiving the rehabilitation and character training that he could receive in an effective alternative school. He will be back in the classroom in no time. If we really want to effect positive change in our children's classrooms, we need to see through the school system propaganda.

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+5 #9 Guest 2011-03-05 14:51

Another incident that speaks to the need for an alternative school. Please parents, get behind this cause.

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+5 #8 Guest 2011-03-05 13:45

Reading the article, it appears that the police obtained an arrest warrant at 2:00 on Friday afternoon. And some posting here are upset because the school did not notify them of the arrest that same afternoon? Surely I'm missing something. If the police had perceived a serious threat immediate action would have been taken, and the school would have been placed on lockdown.

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+2 #7 Guest 2011-03-05 10:55

Perhaps we should calm down a bit. Obviously the police had investigated and had the situation under control before school. There was no need to cause needless hysteria.

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+4 #6 Guest 2011-03-05 09:57

While my child is no longer at Berkley (being redistricted last year) I agree that parents should have been notified immediately about this incident. From what I hear from other parents, Berkeley has deteriorated, in general, and the safety of students and teachers is at risk.

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-4 #5 Guest 2011-03-05 09:04

Parents should have been notified by whatever emergency system that is in place. It is not the school division's right to withhold that type of info - making judgement calls for others is not acceptable. Trust level just went down the toilet.

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