A Florida sheriff’s novel approach to countering school shooting threats by exposing online the identities of children who make them is drawing ire from juvenile justice advocates as well as others who say the tactic is counterproductive and morally wrong.
Michael Chitwood, sheriff of Volusia county, raised eyebrows recently by posting to his Facebook page the name and mugshot of an 11-year-old boy accused of calling in a threat to a local middle school. He followed up with a video clip of the minor’s “perp walk” into jail in shackles.
Chitwood, who has said he is “fed up” with the disruption to schools caused by the hoaxes, has promised to publicly identify any student who makes such a threat. On Wednesday, another video appeared onlineshowing two youths, aged 16 and 17, in handcuffs being led into separate cells, with the sheriff calling them “knuckleheads”.
You’ll hide them, maybe. The threats aren’t the big problem here.
That is true, but they are a problem, and one far more frequent and increasing. I’m not saying I agree with the method here, but it’s specifically targeting “knuckleheads,” which I take to mean (largely) young males that think it’s funny or gets them out of tests or whatever at the cost of often scaring a large amount of other young people, school employees, and parents.