Although the students involved said it was just a joke, no one was laughing about the so-called "Attack a Teacher Day" the Carson City, Nevada, youngsters were planning on Facebook.
Six girls from two middle schools were arrested and booked at juvenile hall on a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats. One girl was accused of inviting nearly 100 students on the social networking website to participate in the event; the other five were accused of responding with online threats against specific teachers. According to the Facebook posting, the "attack," which was never defined, was to take place on January 7 between the hours of 7-9 a.m. at two middle schools. Eighteen students accepted the invitation to participate before a parent discovered the message and the posting was taken down.
Carson Middle School Principal Dan Sadler said, "It's not ‘ok’, and it's not funny in this day and age if you're going to make a threat against a teacher." He noted that the students were arrested on the same day a suspended Omaha student fatally shot an assistant principal, wounded his principal, and then committed suicide. Meanwhile the targeted teachers were shocked by the incident because the six girls were good students, some holding leadership positions and others with top grades. The arrests gave teachers at the schools a chance for classroom discussions about online communications.
