Student 'threat' proves unfounded

A flippant comment by a student at a soccer game turned into a minor incident in the Sisters School District.

According to Deschutes County Sheriff's Office reports, on Saturday October 11, 2008 at 9:40 a.m. a juvenile male had contact with an off-duty teacher during soccer games at Sisters Elementary School.

The student and the teacher knew each other from past school contacts. The teacher struck up a friendly conversation and asked the student how he was doing. The student replied, "I'm planning a mass murder."

The teacher was shocked by this statement and told the student that he was going to have to report it to the police. The student then told the teacher that he was just kidding. The teacher was not sure if the student was joking or not so he reported it to the sheriff's office.

Sheriff's deputies contacted the juvenile at the school and he told the deputies that he was just joking with the teacher. The juvenile was taken into custody for Initiating a False Police Report and lodged in the Deschutes County Juvenile Detention Center. Juvenile authorities determined that the juvenile was not a threat to the community and released him to his mother later in the day.

The student has been suspended from school pending further evaluation.

Sheriff's deputies obtained consent to search the juvenile's residence and found no firearms or other evidence to substantiate that he was planning any kind of violent act. The investigation revealed there was no threat to any particular school or persons, and the student did not have the means or intention of harming anyone.