theweaselking: (Default)
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A fifteen-year old boy in America was incarcerated for twelve days, wrongly accused of making a hoax bomb threat - because his school had forgotten that the clocks had gone forward.

Cody Webb was arrested last month, after Hempfield Area High School received a bomb threat on their student hotline – which provides a range of information to students about the school - at 3.17am on March 11th. They believed they'd found the culprit when they traced the phone number they thought was responsible to Webb.

Unfortunately, the school forgot that the clocks had switched to Daylight Saving Time that morning. The time stamps left on the hotline were adjusted by an hour after Day Light Savings causing Webb's call to logged as the same time the bomb threat was placed. Webb, who's never even had a detention in his life, had actually made his call an hour before the bomb threat was placed.

Despite the fact that the recording of the call featured a voice that sounded nothing like Webb's, the police arrested Webb and he spent 12 days in a juvenile detention facility before the school eventually realised their mistake.

Webb gave an insight into the school's impressive investigative techniques, saying that he was ushered in to see the principal, Kathy Charlton. She asked him what his phone number was, and , according to Webb, when he replied 'she started waving her hands in the air and saying “we got him, we got him.”'

'They just started flipping out, saying I made a bomb threat to the school,' he told local television station KDKA. After he protested his innocence, Webb says that the principal said: 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'

All charges against Webb have now been dropped.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 02:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com
Id sue the school for 5 million, or the firing of all administrators involved.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 03:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrbankies.livejournal.com
s/, firing/ severe beating/

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 03:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rhiannonmai.livejournal.com
*sigh*
Only in America.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 03:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mhoye.livejournal.com
You remember the good old days, when "Only In America" was a phrase you'd use for *good* things?

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 04:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] torrain.livejournal.com
Yep.

I kind of miss those, actually, although I'm not sure if they ever existed or were simply a product of my being young and naive.

(Normally at this point, I'd say something maudlin about wishing I could still see Captain America as a more appropriate US icon than Invader Zim, but that's not really an issue anymore. Because they shot him.)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 03:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kookiemaster.livejournal.com
I love the smell of a lawsuit in the morning...

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-18 02:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mcfnord.livejournal.com
Smells like... emotional duress.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 04:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com
Due. Process.

Why is this so fucking hard for these people?

Answer: Because they're terrified. Are they terrified by terrorists? A little, but mainly they're terrified by their own media and government, who stand to gain by keeping them that way.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 04:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] torrain.livejournal.com
From another article:
County juvenile detention officials wanted to keep Webb in custody, Andrews said. "They wanted him to have a mental health evaluation because he wouldn't admit to making the call."

[...]

"Legally, we were OK. We didn't step on this kid's rights," said Mike Sturnick, supervisor for the juvenile probation office.

Webb's mother arranged home-schooling for him until he decides where to continue his education. He doesn't want to return to Hempfield.
Gyah!

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 06:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tyoko.livejournal.com

He doesn't want to return to Hempfield.

I don't blame him...

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-18 12:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] doug-palmer.livejournal.com
"They wanted him to have a mental health evaluation because he wouldn't admit to making the call."


The hollow chuckle you are hearing is Kafka's ghost.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-17 08:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chizzer.livejournal.com
"After he protested his innocence, Webb says that the principal said: 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'"



That's a hell of a presumption to make before a trial or any sort of due process, eh?

(no subject)

Date: 2007-04-18 11:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sparkindarkness.livejournal.com
And then the usual suspects will start screaming about trial lawyers when this school (and the police) get rightfully sued.

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