The spinner for the area school threat game stopped on Westmont Hilltop in recent weeks, with predictable results.
Schools were closed and parents panicked after someone affixed a threatening message to a high school entrance door.
Coming so soon after threats of violence had closed down the Greater Johnstown School District, it seemed to be a copycat incident, with copycat administration response.
It was interesting to read that this Westmont note was particularly well-written, a curious bit of information shared where little else was.
Eventually, the alleged perpetrator was caught after breaking a window at our relatively new elementary school, this in the wee hours of the morning.
And a lot of questions are being asked by concerned citizenry. I’ve got questions, too, as a taxpayer in the Westmont district, but would be stunned to receive legitimate answers.
Reports on social media, which around these parts have a few posters who are extremely good, better than our professional reporters, have identified the person as a teenage girl, perhaps 14 years of age.
Of course officials can tell us nothing, underage kid and all that. Adolescents can run wild with little fear of the public learning about their infamy in these enlightened times.
They receive relative slaps on the wrist for their transgressions, with magically cleansed or sealed records, and all is forgiven due to their age.
If you’ve ever been around young people, you understand they mature at much different rates. Some 14-year-olds have the outlook of a 30-year old. And, conversely, some 30-year-olds act like 14-year olds.
But those 30-year-olds don’t get the pass on misbehaving that the actual 14-year-olds do.
Maturity is relative and not to be determined solely by age. Remember, Mozart is said to have composed his first symphony at about 9 years of age.
Details from social media said that when this sweet, young girl who threatened Westmont was taken into custody, she was in possession of a loaded gun, a sledgehammer and a butcher’s knife. Supposedly there was a suicide note recovered, too, somewhere, as well as some sort of school-shooting manifesto.
Also, according to social media, she is a cyber school student of the Westmont district who has been missing for a week or so.
This speaks to a constant factor in these types of incidents – parenting, or lack thereof.
The privacy blanket also prevents underperforming parents from ever having to deal with being outed for their poor work.
One hand washes the other.
Now the clock is ticking toward the time when the next disturbed local youth decides to get some attention by making a threat against his or her school district.
The reward, in their sick minds, is great and the downside, in unfortunate reality, is demonstrably small.
Sam Ross Jr's site 