Virginia College Incident---and Kids do dumb things?!!!

Parent Cafe
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<p>I really can’t believe a grown woman could be this dumb. An employee of Virginia College sent her daughter a text saying she could hear gunshots as an April Fools joke! When D sent mom a reply text to see what was going on, mom didn’t answer. Daughter called 911 and reported a possible shooting at the college. The law enforcement agencies that responded were NOT amused. She was arrested–duh?</p>

<p><a href=“911 call released in college shooting April Fools’ joke”>http://www.wyff4.com/news/april-fools-call-reports-shooting-at-college-charges-possible/25264986&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>That link doesn’t work for me.</p>

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<p>For some reason, CC won’t let me edit my text above. Here’s a working link
<a href=“911 call released in college shooting April Fools’ joke”>http://www.wyff4.com/news/april-fools-call-reports-shooting-at-college-charges-possible/25264986&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Actually, the MOM was the dummy, not the kid. The kid acted responsibly and it is the MOM who should be charged with very poor judgment. There should NOT be joking about gunfire in this day and age–too scary and will cause quick reaction by most responders, potentially pulling them from other important duties and potentially causing panic and worse.</p>

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<p>That is like joking about robbery in a bank. Years ago I was a teller, and you would be surprised how many people thought it was funny to joke about that.</p>

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<p>When our kids were very little (about 4 or so), one day, S thought it would be “fun” to joke around in the sight of the security folks and asked loudly, “was the bomb packed.” All our luggage was carefully and slowly searched and he was thoroughly scolded by TSA and us. He had the excuse of youth–this mom had no excuse; awful judgment!</p>

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<p>I don’t understand what the “kid” did that was dumb. I’d do the exact same thing. </p>

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<p>OP IS saying it was the mom who was dumb–the thread title means people commonly accuse KIDS of doing dumb things, yet look at this grown woman.</p>

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<p>OK, I guess I misread the title. Somehow, it seems some folks do lack common sense, no matter what their age. Kids DO do dumb things, but sadly, some parents do as well.</p>

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<p>@jonri, thanks for sharing the story! I have edited your original post to ensure all reader are able to access the link. </p>

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<p>Wow. Thank goodness for the two sets of chromosomes and genetic recombination! The kid did not inherit the dumb gene. :)</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>it looks like the mom was charged. </p>

<p>It was obviously an irresponsible and terrible thing to do.</p>

<p>However, I wonder about the legality of it all. I doubt you can be “charged with very poor judgement”.</p>

<p>The woman had a private conversation with her daughter.
They seem to do some type of prank every year and the daughter never called 911 before.</p>

<p>Any internet lawyers who can describe the legal basis for charging someone?</p>

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<p>Joking about a shooter is not funny and obviously has serious implications, I’m surprised she mother didn’t know that. As far as the legal basis of charging someone, I believe it’s called inducing panic, which she can surely be charged with.</p>

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<p>It’s like yelling fire in a crowded place (like a theater); very bad and dangerous idea. Inducing panic and wasting tax funds with 911 responders are good places to start. The city may charge her for all the people who had to respond to the 911 call. Hopefully that would dissuade copycats. </p>

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<p>In addition to justblewit and Himom’s comments, some jurisdictions do allow law enforcement to arrest and charge someone for wasting police/emergency service’s time if it’s shown the incident was prompted by a practical joke, caller knew it was false, and/or the caller had previous history of frivolous*/wasted time calls and this call happened to be the last straw. </p>

<ul>
<li>I.e. Calling 911 to voice a noise complaint against a neighboring family at 4 pm in a large metropolis when the root cause is noise one normally expects from schoolchildren coming home from school around that time and noise laws don’t go into effect until 11 pm.<br></li>
</ul>

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<p>Well, the article specifies “Timmons is facing four charges, disturbing school, aggravated breach of peace, and two counts of unlawful use of telephone.”</p>

<p>For any given situation, there are usually a large number of charges possible (often involving the word ‘conspiracy’).</p>

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<p>@cobrat and @HImom‌ </p>

<p>What seems different in this case (from yelling fire or calling 911 multiple times) is that</p>

<ul>
<li> The mom had a brief conversation with the daughter.</li>
<li> The daughter called 911.</li>
<li> There didn’t seem to be any history of any of these “pranks” escalating to a 911 call. (“I had no idea she would overreact the way she did” defense)</li>
</ul>

<p>@justblewit‌ </p>

<p>Thanks. Seems “inducing panic” is a real charge.
<a href=“http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/25/inducing-panic-charge.html”>http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/25/inducing-panic-charge.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So in this case, the mom induced panic in the daughter which resulted in the daughter wasting 911 time and further inducing panic in others.</p>

<p>Again, I don’t think what the mom did was excusable, I was just wondering about the legal basis.</p>

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<p>Agree that the mom was the one with appallingly bad judgement. And she doles out financial aid for students???</p>

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<p>Personally, I think she’s a sick b**** to even imagine joking about such a thing. </p>

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<p>The D’s reaction was ‘normal’ and reasonably foreseeable. I think mom should bear the cost of the first responders who showed up in response to her text. </p>