Boy suspended after alleged threats

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR - A ninth-grade boy at Corona del Mar High School was

taken into police custody last week after allegedly threatening a female

classmate.

The student was charged with making “terrorist threats,” said Sgt.

Steve Shulman of the Newport Beach Police Department. “Terrorist threats”

is legal language meaning a threat that could cause harm to another.

A teacher allegedly overheard the student making the threats to the

girl in class on Thursday and sent him to the vice principal, said Supt.

Robert Barbot.

“There was a ninth grade kid who made some comments in a class to a

young lady, angry comments,” Barbot said. “The principal talked to him

and we took a hard-line position. The child was suspended for five days

pending further investigation.”

While the boy did not deny making the comments, Barbot said, each

party had a different take on what happened.

“The kid’s interpretation of what he had done was very different than

the young lady’s,” he said.

Both police and school officials are continuing to investigate what

happened. Police will turn the case over to the juvenile courts, Shulman

said.

While school and district officials continue to meet with the child’s

parents, they do not intend for him to return to Corona del Mar, Barbot

said.

The incident is the latest in a string of threats of violence in

Newport-Mesa Unified schools and schools throughout the country.

Just weeks ago two other Corona del Mar students were suspended for

allegedly making milder threats.

A seventh-grade student was suspended from the school after allegedly

drawing a picture of a teacher with an arrow through it in an art class.

The next day a second student was suspended after officials heard reports

of him allegedly making threats.

Both of these incidents followed closely on the heels of 15-year-old

Charles Andrew Williams allegedly opening fire on classmates, killing two

students and wounding 13 others at Santiago High School in Santee last

month.

Newport-Mesa school officials said they have to treat each and every

threat as a serious one, especially following the Santee shooting.

The ninth-grader’s suspension also comes after the school board voted

in a new district student conduct policy that says no violence, threats,

bullying or intimidation will be tolerated.

That policy came after a group of outraged parents from Corona del Mar

demanded action following an incident at the school last spring in which

a 13-year-old boy was choked by a classmate until he lost consciousness.