Father hopes accused girl is treated fairly » Local News » The Ottumwa Courier
Residents here have followed the story of a teenage girl accused of plotting an attack at Ottumwa High School. but it’s not the first time an American teen has been arrested for an attack that never happened. In Ottumwa, police say they are still investigating the case and haven’t revealed many details, including what evidence led to the arrest. but they say “terrorism” is a fitting legal term. In several national cases randomly chosen by the Courier, actual weapons were often in evidence. Examples with convictions were from a wide area geographically and resulted mostly in sentences of about three years. According to the state of Michigan Bar Association’s website, a court refused to increase the sentence of a “minimum of” four years for Andrew Osantowski. They said though the teen was properly convicted of plotting to kill people at his school in 2005, he was no terrorist. An AP story from then said Osantowski instant-messaged someone via computer that he was bullied at school and wanted revenge. a search of Osantowski's home yielded guns, ammo, bomb-making paraphernalia, a Nazi flag and materials about white supremacy. but the appeals court ruled that “not all threats are acts of terrorism, even if they qualify as violent felonies.” the 10-year sentence prosecutors wanted was denied. In 2008, south of Boston, Mass., Joseph Nee was ordered to serve nine months for his role in planning an attack that never occurred. the associated Press reported that Nee and three other boys were accused of planning “a mass murder” on the date of the Columbine High School attack. In 2007, another boy was sentenced to 10 months for his role. and in Louisiana this month, the Times-Picayune reported at least three teenagers were arrested because of police claims they planned an attack for the first day of school. Detectives said one of them had the combination for a friend’s gun safe and planned to pick up weapons just before the attack. the kids arranged for a car so they wouldn’t have to sneak guns onto the school bus and warned friends not to attend school that day. a judge sentenced one teen to three years in juvenile prison and another to two years. Over the summer, Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor told the public that Florida teenager Jared Cano had amassed shrapnel, plastic tubing, timing and fuse devices for pipe bombs intended to take as many lives as possible. Police and the school system “were probably able to thwart a potentially catastrophic event, the likes of which the city of Tampa has not seen, and hopefully never will,” Chief Castor told the associated Press. Officers said they also found a journal with schematic drawings of rooms inside Freedom High School and statements about Cano’s intent to kill specific administrators and any students who happened to be nearby. the plan was mapped out, minute-by-minute, Castor said. the boy will be tried as an adult. Have kids changed over the years so gun violence is the answer to problems? Iowa Representative Curt Hanson worked as an educator from 1965 to 2008, once being named Fairfield Teacher of the Year. Not commenting on the Ottumwa case specifically and not knowing any of the details, Hanson disussed the school threat issue in general terms as a national issue. He said the public can’t help but notice media focus on violent incidents, rather than giving similar attention to tragedies that have been avoided. In fact, he said, there are a lot of positives in schools which should make the news; he still finds himself impressed by the young people in our communities. and no, he said, kids themselves aren’t that different then they were in the 1960s. “I think parents have changed … I think kids are born kind of neutral, a blank slate. Parents have changed a lot.” It’s not that parents of kids in these national stories are all bad people. but society has forced changes in priorities, he said. “Years ago, you had two parents raising the children, with one usually staying home. but these days, to make things go it takes two breadwinners,” Hanson said. “They’re trying their best to keep all the balls in the air at once.” while parents put a lot of effort into raising their children, spending longer hours at work means less time for parenting. “how many families do sit down together and have dinner together, shut off the TV, the cell phones, the video games?” Gadgets can be great, he said, but how much time are families really spending with each other, face-to-face, doing the things that help build character and values within children. “[All these factors] leave less time for parenting,” Hanson said. “We’re not [able to utilize] the same parenting skills our parents and grandparents used.”
