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I haven't seen this brought up on FG. If I missed the thread I apologize.



Saturday the parents of an 18 yr old senior highschool student turned their son into police after finding bomb making materials.



http://e.a.cnn.net/2008/CRIME/04/21/sch ... index.html



I watched the news this morning on this. The friends of the teen were astonished at this plot and said they had noticed nothing different or depressing about him.

Must have been a hard thing for them to do, but good for them.

mikeinie;843876 wrote: Must have been a hard thing for them to do, but good for them.


Well I must admit to getting those sort of materials together and planning to make several bombs in my youth - indeed I had great fun setting them off in the back garden.

Given the journal, however, they had no choice but to take it as serious intent - as you say, much honour to the parents.

I am sure they are thinking or hoping they actually saved his life by turning him in, and possibly dozens of other childrens lives. At least that is the way I see it.

I have to admit, the first thing I would do is confront the kid and ask him WTF is going on here. If he became beligerent there might just be a brawl right then and there and we might both end up in the clink.

Bryn Mawr;843886 wrote: Well I must admit to getting those sort of materials together and planning to make several bombs in my youth - indeed I had great fun setting them off in the back garden.

Given the journal, however, they had no choice but to take it as serious intent - as you say, much honour to the parents.


Well, Well. We have that in common. I was always interested in things that go 'BANG' as a child and adult. My dad was a gun collector-shooter-hunter. There was always arms, ammo and quantities of different kinds of gunpowder. In my terrible teens I managed to burn my hands, break my glasses and burn off my eyebrows before I had enough. NEVER did I have a mind to kill or injure anyone though.

rjwould;844105 wrote: Don't think that my comment is dismissive of the actions or intentions of this young man, they are not intended to be. I like to look at these situations from differing perspectives and explore possibilities.



What hits me square in the face here with the very limited information we have about this person, his history and his family life, is he seems, at first glance, to be a kid who has been suckin' it up for as long as he could. He is among top of his class, handsome and so forth, but yet he seems to have issues regarding self confidence and perhaps competition. It's possible that he toughened up, hid his apparent problems and suppressed his anger and jealousy for as long as he could and.....POP.....Its what suppressing anger can do.



I may be completely off base of course and some of you will most likely dismiss what I've said out of hand. But instead of foaming at the mouth and calling for his head, perhaps we can explore what the f@@k is going on in the heads of these children and care enough to converse.



I also think the parents were faced with having to make a horrible choice. If I were his parents, my questions would be; "where and what could I have done differently?" "Do I have any ownership in how my son turned out?" "Did I spend enough time with him?" "Was I available to him to the extent he needed me to be?" The parents must be devastated and confused.



What I would be interested in knowing is was he ever on any behavior modification drugs or seeing a counselor, and many more.



Unfortunately, our media hits us with incomplete stories because they are all competing for the readership. I believe we would be much better served if the media took its time, looked into the questions we may have and do some real investigative reporting. Those days are mostly gone now and it is up to the reader to resist the urge to become enraged and search for some fair, balanced and informative bits and pieces after the initial story grab washes away and we move on as next skin crawling story emerges.



BTW-YZGI, thanks for the story and the way in which you presented it in your OP.
The highlighted in your quotes is my first question. Have we drugged these kids into their mental perils?

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. I am sure if these diagnosis had been available in my era that I would have been either labeled adhd or add or some other initials. My older brother was your typical straight A student, I continually scored higher on their so called IQ tests and aptitude tests than he but just maintained around a B- to a C grade point average because I just couldn't be bothered (for no other reason I can think of). I am glad I was never put on these drugs and have never had the need to put my own 3 sons on them. I have no idea if the drugs are a catalyst and am not condemning them but will say I am afraid of them.

hoppy;844096 wrote: Well, Well. We have that in common. I was always interested in things that go 'BANG' as a child and adult. My dad was a gun collector-shooter-hunter. There was always arms, ammo and quantities of different kinds of gunpowder. In my terrible teens I managed to burn my hands, break my glasses and burn off my eyebrows before I had enough. NEVER did I have a mind to kill or injure anyone though.


Guns never floated my boat - my brother was a crack shot and won tournaments doing so but I always saw guns as a means to hurt / kill people.

Explosives, however, were fun! Blowing things up was exciting - it had nothing to do with killing or hurting, it was the thrill of demolition - how much and where to achieve the goal.

he bought it on ebay?:-2

it's legal to sell the crap on ebay, but it's not legal to buy the stuff? seems to me the person that sold the crap and shipped it should be getting arrested at some point.

I don't see it as a hard decision at all....i'd rather be a "grass" than have the shame of having a murderer for a child .

pantsonfire321@aol.com;844480 wrote: I don't see it as a hard decision at all....i'd rather be a "grass" than have the shame of having a murderer for a child .


I agree!

I know it must've been hard for the parents, but they did the right thing. I hope the boy gets the help he needs and one day he thanks his parents for what they did for not only him but his classmates as well.

flopstock;844459 wrote: he bought it on ebay?:-2

it's legal to sell the crap on ebay, but it's not legal to buy the stuff? seems to me the person that sold the crap and shipped it should be getting arrested at some point.


Ammonium Nitrate? It is a fairly standard fertiliser, not difficult to obtain and certainly not illegal to sell.

The only reason it was illegal for him to have it was the intended use - for normal usage it is not illegal to buy it.

flopstock;844459 wrote: he bought it on ebay?:-2

it's legal to sell the crap on ebay, but it's not legal to buy the stuff? seems to me the person that sold the crap and shipped it should be getting arrested at some point.


Black gunpowder is an easy to make explosive as well. Sulpher, charcoal and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). A determined individual, the internet or a public library, a few dollars worth of materials and anyone can be a terrorist.

Sorry looks like I might be looking at this at a different angle, I have to many questions about this .... Did this boy try anything like this before? Is he a known trouble maker? Is he having emotional problems? Did they really discuss this with him? What's the history?

Now I'm gonna get bawled at .... If I had a child who has no 'priors', I would spend a little more time investigating the 'why' and the 'who can help him' ..... before I washed my hands of him, discarded him from my responsibility, and hurled him at the police. I'm not saying that I would not have gone to the police .... I just hope they handled this correctly otherwise the boy may now feel he has lost the stability and support of his family - If that happens ... this is just the start of a downwards slide.

Well it looks like I'm a thread killer ......

All I am saying is, as a result of the parents actions, regarding this kids plans, he is now headlined as a mass murderer with very little hope of a decent future. Any decent people around him will no longer want to know him, he has possibly, lost the support (in his mind, if not in actuality) of his family, and will possible be spending a great deal of time with hardened criminals. What hope does he have? Only the people that think what he was going to do was cool, will befriend him ... another drug dealing, murderer in the making.

Where was he building this thing? Do the parent not know what he's up to and what he has? Why did he want kill others, then himself ... what's happening in his life right now? Well, its probably too late for him now!

Obviously the intervention possibly saving many lifes - hopefully the way it was handled will not cause the loss of his, and future lifes.

Not much else to say Pheasy. Everything you say is pretty much right on. I'm just glad a possible tragedy was averted.

Pheasy;845248 wrote: Well it looks like I'm a thread killer ......

All I am saying is, as a result of the parents actions, regarding this kids plans, he is now headlined as a mass murderer with very little hope of a decent future. Any decent people around him will no longer want to know him, he has possibly, lost the support (in his mind, if not in actuality) of his family, and will possible be spending a great deal of time with hardened criminals. What hope does he have? Only the people that think what he was going to do was cool, will befriend him ... another drug dealing, murderer in the making.

Where was he building this thing? Do the parent not know what he's up to and what he has? Why did he want kill others, then himself ... what's happening in his life right now? Well, its probably too late for him now!

Obviously the intervention possibly saving many lifes - hopefully the way it was handled will not cause the loss of his, and future lifes.


I know what your saying, but unfortunately these things are 20 20 hind sight aren’t they? It is easy to say now all the alternatives that could have been done, but then, would you want another Virginia University incident, or Illinois, or any of the others? The people question why the parents didn’t do anything, so either way the parents can’t win.

I am sure the parents had some serious concerns that made them take action, and good for them for having the courage to do it. God knows how many lives they may have saved, and could they have risked it?