Found on the front page of today\'s Providence Journal. I blame the media.
Student\'s essay spurs investigation by Secret Service
The West Warwick police say the seventh-grader threatens violence toward President Bush and executives at Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart.
12:45 PM EST on Thursday, February 2, 2006
BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer
WEST WARWICK -- The Secret Service is investigating a seventh-grade Deering Middle School student who allegedly threatened President Bush in an essay describing his perfect day.
In the one-page, hand-written essay, the student says his ideal day involves doing violence to President Bush as well as executives at Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart, Detective Sgt. Fernando Araujo, the head of the Police Department\'s juvenile division, said yesterday.
The essay did not threaten any school staff or students, Araujo said.
"The assignment was to describe what you would do on a perfect day," Schools Supt. David P. Raiche said yesterday. "It appears this young man felt that there may be companies doing inappropriate things. He felt there should be some violence directed" at them and the president.
The boy, who is between 11 and 13 years old and was not identified yesterday, submitted the homework assignment Tuesday morning. His English teacher read it around 11 a.m. and immediately alerted Assistant Principal Brian Dillon as well as a school social worker, Raiche said.
The essay was given to school resource officer Jessie Tuomisto, a uniformed patrolman based at Deering. The police contacted the Secret Service, which dispatched two agents to interview the student, his teacher and other school staff, Raiche said.
"There was a concern," Raiche said. "Anytime anyone is saying something that can be seen as a violent act you take it seriously."
The police and Raiche declined to identify the student or his teacher or release a copy of the composition. School officials described the boy\'s discourse as a rambling, anti-Bush, anti-corporate screed. In addition to the president, the boy threatens to murder Oprah Winfrey and attack a Walgreens pharmacy, School Committee member Thomas V. Iannitti Jr. said. The note, he said, also mentions the Ku Klux Klan and refers to "retards."
"His perfect day would be to see the destruction of these people," Iannitti said.
Threatening the president is a felony, and the Secret Service investigation is ongoing, said Thomas M. Powers, the resident agent in charge in the agency\'s Providence office. This is the first time in at least three years that Secret Service agents have investigated a student in Rhode Island for threatening the president, he said.
The West Warwick police did not arrest the boy on Tuesday and he is not charged with any crime, Araujo said. Raiche said the student is temporarily barred from returning to school, but he does not face disciplinary action. "My focus is not on the discipline side but the mental-health side," Raiche said.
"He went a little overboard and it caught our attention," Araujo said. "The school is handling it. I was satisfied with that."
School officials would not say if the student has a history of violence. On Tuesday, he exhibited no outwardly malicious behavior, verbal or otherwise, Araujo said.
Ruminating on his fantasy day, the boy wrote of threatening "corporate America and the evil agencies of which the president, George W. Bush, is in charge of," according to Araujo. But the essay, Araujo said, did not contain specific plans for carrying out an attack or assassination.
"It wasn\'t any detailed, minute-by-minute plan," Araujo said. "It didn\'t meet the criteria for a criminal charge."
Daniel T. Burns Jr., chairman of the school board, said the essay reflected real anger, but not a violent agenda. "He was writing a letter threatening everyone on the planet," Burns said. "He was just mad at the world."
The Secret Service recently held a training conference in Warwick as part of its Safe School Initiative to help school officials and law enforcement prevent school shootings and other violence. The incident in West Warwick, Powers said, might have been a "cry for help."
Iannitti agreed, saying the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colo., caused "hypersensitivity" among school officials nationwide.
"The language wasn\'t very dark or malicious," Iannitti said of the controversial essay. "I\'m not minimizing it, but this is a mixed-up adolescent. Everyone needs to relax. This kid is messed up. He needs help."
Actually How is this kid messed up ? The only wrong thing he did was put it on paper. Hell I think about that kind of stuff everyday.
lol
Raising some fine folk there in RI.
ugh that poor kid
Of course this all will probably just fuel his fire. Bow he\'s mad at the administration AND probably thinks he is being censored.
freedom of speak
****, the government has no right to keep the exact contents of that letter hidden. i think it\'s rediculous, sure the kid might need some help but to have the secret service come in and shake this kid down. what they have nothing better to spend my tax dollars on.
****\'n joke
freedom of speak ****, the government has no right to keep the exact contents of that letter hidden. i think it\'s rediculous, sure the kid might need some help but to have the secret service come in and shake this kid down. what they have nothing better to spend my tax dollars on.
****\'n joke
take your anarachy somewhere else, this is a good place with good people. we don\'t take kindly to this type of uprisings around these parts.
derickw, please stop. The Secret Service is probably still in RI, reading emails, message boards and taping into the kids life at unbelievable lengths. Your going to get us all into trouble.
Yep, they\'re definitely on to us now. Way to go Derick.
Nobody say anything incriminating now that Derick has the Feds breathing down our necks...
freedom of speak ****, the government has no right to keep the exact contents of that letter hidden. i think it\'s rediculous, sure the kid might need some help but to have the secret service come in and shake this kid down. what they have nothing better to spend my tax dollars on.
****\'n joke
well, lets see, welfare is much better right? they could just fork money over to useless human beings who are too \'proud\' and lazy to get a job, instead they become dependant upon my paycheck.
feds don\'t give a shi\'ite about no Breakfast board comments on a well publicized news story... for real y\'all
I was only kidding. sheesh. That was ENTIRELY sarcastic.
In that case, please excuse my sudden and inexplicable spells of retardation
its sad that we haven\'t revolted and overthrown the federal government yet. it is our responsibility as americans to do so. but no one really cares enough. it would be too inconvenient and would interupt our comfy lifestyles.
Hell I think about that kind of stuff everyday.
I have put a call in to the Secret Service and local authorities in your area. I am worried that this post is a precursor to violence. You will be investigated.