High School Student Charged With Attempting to Use a WMD
“The kid needs help, but this is a violent offense,” said Jay Hodge. “You can’t put an entire community in fear and just walk away. In this situation, society requires jail time. There’s no way to excuse or forgive what he did.”
Hodge, a prosecutor in Chesterfield, a small town in northeastern South Carolina, was referring to 18 year-old Ryan Schallenberger, who stands accused of planning to bomb his high school. The charges: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible a life sentence, and two other federal counts. Click here and here for AP reports (via the NYT). Schallenberger (pictured) was arrested on state charges Saturday after his parents called the police because he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer used in bombs, from eBay. He also faces state charges.
Prosecutor Hodge said investigators found an attack timeline in Schallenberger’s journal. The entry, according to reports, included how he would lock his school’s doors and where he would place more than five explosives in the building. According to reports, the journal also contained a hand-drawn map of the school and praise for the Columbine killers. Police say they also found an audiotape that was to have been played after Schallenberger died.
According to the AP report, after the state hearing, one of Schallenberger’s classmates, Hanna Huntley, disputed the idea that Schallenberger was a loner, and recounted how the teen made students laugh by singing songs from the cartoon ”SpongeBob SquarePants.”
”He had plenty of friends,” Huntley said. ”He was a likable person. He was the type of person that, if you weren’t happy that day, he’d make you smile. That’s why it was such a shock. He obviously kept all this bottled up.”
A possible life sentence? LB readers, let us know what you think.
He is beyond repair. Anyone capable of such a plot cannot be allowed back into society. We have a duty to protect our citizens by locking this guy up forever. Period.
While calling a conventional bomb a “WMD” is silly, the kid did plan a mass murder. With that in mind, I’d say life sentence is not at all unreasonable. In fact had he succeeded (and survived), no one would argue against life imprisonment, with many calling for execution.
10 pounds of fertilizer and a vivid imagination are all it takes to get you locked up as a Columbine-style terrorist these days. Farmers everywhere, watch out what you write, you are all potential terrorists in the eyes of publicity hungry prosecutors.
nah, you’re only a terrorist if you are (or look like) a muslim — otherwise, just a “high school student” attempting to blow everyone up…
traditional explosives are NOT!!! WMD. is gun powder a WMD? Weapons of mass distruction are chemical nuclear or biological weapons.
Any weapon that is capable of killing multiple people at one time can easily be called a WMD. Whether someone is using a bomb or a gun, killing, or the intent to kill, is not to be treated lightly. He knew what he was doing, had a plan to carry it out, and was more than willing to see that plan to the end, as evident with the tape for afterwards. There is no leniency for these people, and rightly so.
Praise for the parents for paying attention to what their son was doing. Without their involvement, the ending would be much different for this story.
While this kid is a nutjob and should be locked up for some period, the 10 pound bag of ammonium nitrate isn’t really a WMD. By comparison the Oklahoma City bombers used 5500 pounds of ammonium nitrate, three fifty-five gallon drums of liquid nitromethane and other explosives.
Sorry I can’t stop laughing….
Man, why do these psycho-killer types all have that same “look” about them. Maybe its a genetic thing. I just feel like, given a room of 30 random high school students and knowing that one was accused of plotting a Columbine-style attack, I could pick this kid out in a heartbeat.
What’s an 18 year old man doing watching cartoons anyway? There’s your first sign.
and how many times did he watch “Heathers”?
Praise the parents for being aware of what their son was doing? Yeah,right! If they were ‘aware’ of what he was doing,#1.He wouldn’t have access to a computer. 2.Somehow between his parents and Ebay,some red flags should have gone up. We are allowing modern technology to ‘babysit’ our children today. The parents should face charges,too!
Ron: you’re a fool.
First, yes, good on the parents for being alert and doing the right thing.
And I also think it is important that they quoted the classmate of his saying he was well-liked. I knew someone who knew the Columbine shooters, and she said that they were also well-liked. This whole “revenge on those who wronged me” theme is so much overentitled bullshit. These kids were not victimized.
But on these facts, I’m thinking 10-20 years is more appropriate. If he is sane.
automatic weapons are weapons of mass destruction.
We do not yet know the plea in defense.
The precedents in the Oklahoma case seem to indicate he may be subject to two trials.Violation of a federal staute wuth mandatory penalties and state proceedings which may involve some concept of “justice.”
Balancing what has actually transpired with the requirements of “society,” Compulsory psychiatric monitoring for many years (incarceration plus probation) would be the minimum for society’s interest.
But, here is the issue of intent, that could have been dropped or discarded at anytime in the “time-line.” The supposed events were not set in train to occur with absolute certainty.
What we have here are a Federal “possession” case (WMD)
and indications of criminal intent, but not a criminal act.
Life sentence should not apply, without more acts by the defendant, for “mere intent,” no matter how dire the intent.
Acts accompanied by intent (scienter)are quite different from intents without acts connected to fruition.
According to these comments, I guess GWB was right about Saddam having “WMDs” after all.
Kid cleary has issues. However, WMD??? C’mon now. The term is reserved for a particular type of weapons (and for good reason). Using 9:28’s reasoning, a car could be classified as a WMD.
“Yeah,right! If they were ‘aware’ of what he was doing,#1.He wouldn’t have access to a computer.”
Comment by Ron - April 23, 2008 at 11:20 am
Ron, where have you been living for the past 20 years? Every kid in the country has access to a computer AND the Internet.
Before you write, get a clue. Lest all doubt be removed.
The parents ratted out their kid? What scumbags.
They called it a “WMD” for no other reason than to grab headlines. What kind of losers are THAT desperate for publicity?
Come on, I’ve ordered better explosives than that from eBay, and my parents didn’t say anything.
Clearly, charging the kid with attempted murder and attempted arson makes sense, but charging him with attempted use of WMDs is just wrong.
I agree with Stiles, FLW. Kudos to the parents. Thank goodness he didn’t get away with it. Although he should be punished, I don’t think a long prison term is the answer. It may just make him worse. Hopefully he’ll get the professional help he needs.
wtf! when i was his age i was thinking about boys and spice girls! i think teenagers are being exposed to too many bad news. so much info is good, but just as porn and R-rated movies exist, there are certain news that kids should not know about for the sake of not giving them ideas they cannot handle.
WMDs = weapons of mass destruction, just like UFO = unidentified flying object. Literally, ‘wmd = something you can use as a weapon to kill more than one person’ and ‘ufo = an object that is flying around that we don’t know what it is. However, that’s very very boring to the general public, and therefore ‘wmd = terrorist’ and ‘ufo = aliens’ It’s just another acronym that has been changed. Get used to the idea.
