South Carolina Teen Accused in School Plot Wanted to Kill Jesus

South Carolina Teen Accused in School Plot Wanted to Kill Jesus

Federal authorities say a South Carolina teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus.

A dark portrait of Ryan Schallenberger emerged Tuesday in a federal courtroom as prosecutors argued the teen needs a psychological evaluation.

An ATF agent says Schallenberger told a sheriff about his wish to die after his arrest. Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen's mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall. She says on the tape her son threatened to shoot police if they were called to his home.

Authorities say the teen bought materials to make several bombs and had written a journal detailing his plans to attack Chesterfield High School.

 

Oregon School Decries 'Gang Sign' Eyebrow Grooming

Oregon School Decries 'Gang Sign' Eyebrow Grooming -

 

One Portland school is telling some students: shave your eyebrows or go home.

Several students at Centennial High School have picked up on a trend to shave lines into their eyebrows. They say it's a fashion statement; school administrators, however, contend it's a gang sign.

Centennial administrators are telling students who shave the lines that they can't return to school until they take care of the problem — by shaving their eyebrows off. Four students have been sent home. One came back immediately with a bandage covering the shaved brow. The others are still out of school.

Assistant Principal Mark Porterfield said the students are not suspended, but they are not allowed in school until they cooperate.

Andy Gonzalez, a junior at Centennial, was studying for a test when a security guard approached him and told him to go home. He told the teenager that the one vertical line down his brow looked like a gang symbol and said, "If you're going to come to school like that, don't come at all."

Gonzalez, 17, says he isn't in a gang and shaved the lines to look cool and impress girls. But he says he'd be humiliated if he had to shave his brows off.

The vertical line in brows was popular with rappers years ago and has returned recently with hip-hop star, Soulja Boy. But police say gangs have co-opted the trend for their own use.

In this case, Gresham police say members of Southside 13, a prominent Latino gang in east Multnomah County, are marking themselves by shaving one line into an eyebrow and three lines in the other to symbolize 13.

"We don't dictate policy for any schools," Officer David Schmidt of the East Multnomah County Gang Enforcement Team said. "We just tell them what we see the latest trends are. This is a way for them to identify each other. In a school setting, it intimidates other kids."

Centennial implemented the rules about the eyebrows after other area high schools, including Gresham, did.

But other schools say their policy is different, they only look for the markings of the 13 style and would not send students home for having different shavings. If students did shave the symbols into their eyebrows, Gresham administrators say they would ask them to fill in the marks with an eyebrow pencil.

Centennial students say they are getting conflicting messages about what is allowed and when they can return. They also say officials have not announced the rules.

Junior Jasiel Carmona says he was told by a vice principal that he could return if he colored his eyebrows in with makeup, but a security guard told him he's have to shave them off.

 

15-year-old Boy brings handgun to Mount Tahoma High School | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

15-year-old Boy brings handgun to Mount Tahoma High School | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

Classes were dismissed early and activities canceled at Mount Tahoma High School on Monday after a previously-suspended 15-year-old boy brought a loaded handgun to campus.

No one was injured and the gun was not fired, Tacoma police spokeswoman Gretchen Aguirre said.

The 10th-grader was booked into Remann Hall juvenile jail on suspicion of bringing a dangerous weapon on school grounds.

Tacoma police were trying to determine where he got the revolver and what – if anything – he planned to do with it.

“We’re just not getting a lot of information,” Aguirre said.

Officers interviewed several other students about the incident.

“It was an isolated incident,” Aguirre said.

The student had been suspended from Mount Tahoma High School, 4634 S. 74th St., Tacoma, and forbidden to return to the campus. On Monday morning, a teacher spotted him in the building, Tacoma School District spokeswoman Stacy Flores said.

The teacher knew the student had been suspended and notified an off-duty Tacoma police officer working at the school, Tacoma schools spokeswoman Leanna Albrecht said.

The officer stopped the student, who had already left the building, and searched him. The officer “found a loaded handgun on him,” Aguirre said.

The school was in a lockdown for nearly two hours as officers investigated. The lockdown was lifted around noon, and students were dismissed at 12:15 p.m., nearly two hours early.

In addition, all afternoon activities and practices were canceled, Albrecht said.

School officials sent out a telephone message to Mount Tahoma parents and posted the early dismissal information on schoolreport.org. They plan to send a letter home with the students today.

Classes and activities will be back to normal today, officials said.

 

Prosecutor Says South Carolina Student to Face WMD Charge

n 18-year-old accused of planning to bomb his high school will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life sentence, the top federal prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday.

Ryan Schallenberger also will face two lesser federal charges stemming from what authorities say was a scheme to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in the small town of Chesterfield, near the North Carolina line.

The student will be charged in federal court in Florence on Tuesday afternoon, said Kevin McDonald, the acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

McDonald said the federal charge comes into play mostly because Schallenberger ordered materials that can be used for bombs through the mail.

William Spencer, the teen's court-appointed attorney, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Schallenberger was arrested on state charges Saturday. Authorities say his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) of ammonium nitrate, which they retrieved after getting a delivery notice from the postal service. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer that was a component in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Authorities have said Schallenberger could have assembled deadly bombs within minutes with the materials they found. Police said they also discovered bombing plans including a hand-drawn map of the school, a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers and an audiotape that authorities say was to have been played after Schallenberger died.

Schallenberger has been charged by the state with making a bomb threat, and county prosecutor Jay Hodge planned Tuesday to charge him with possession of bomb-making materials.

Schallenberger was to appear in a Chesterfield courtroom Tuesday afternoon for a bond hearing during which state prosecutors said they planned to request that he undergo a mental evaluation. He was to be taken to federal court later in the day.

McDonald said the federal charges will be resolved before the state case.

Authorities said Schallenberger's journal did not specify targets of an attack, or a date that he planned to carry it out. Police Chief Randall Lear said Schallenberger was "just mad at the world."

Schallenberger's mother and stepfather, Laurie and John Sittley, are "heartbroken," according to Sheriff Sam Parker.

"They were very concerned about his future education. I kind of explained to them and told them we've got to deal with two options here, we've got to deal with his education or with his life," Parker told ABC television's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

The Sittleys have not commented publicly on the case. Their phone number is unlisted, they did not attend a court hearing Monday and their home about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the school was blocked by "No Trespassing" signs later that day.

McDonald said Schallenberger will be charged with federal counts of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use explosives on a building that gets federal funding, and using interstate commerce to obtain explosives to be used against people and property.

Authorities have said Schallenberger bought the ammonium nitrate off eBay and that company said it's cooperating in the investigation.

Eighth-Grader Faces Felony Charge for Planting Nuts in Lunch of Allergic Classmate

An eighth-grader in Kentucky is accused of putting peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunchbox of a classmate with a severe peanut allergy.

The allergic student did not eat the cookies Thursday at Morton Middle School in Lexington.

Fayette County schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall says the accused student was arrested on a felony wanton endangerment charge. The student will face charges in the juvenile court system.

Deffendall says it was well known that the other student suffered allergies. There was no known history of problems between the two 13-year-olds.

For those allergic to peanuts, trace amounts of peanut oil can cause severe reactions and even death.

Suspended Tampa Middle School Teacher Arrested a Third Time on Charges of Having Sex With Students

A suspended middle school teacher out on bail for allegedly having sex with two students will be back in court Tuesday after police say they caught her having sex with one of them again.

Stephanie Ragusa, 29, was arrested for the third time in about six weeks on charges of sex with a minor, MyFOXTampa reported. She was being held without bond at the Orient Road Jail.

"I can assure you that we are doing everything we can right now to make sure that she’s not out at liberty to do this again," said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Lt. Fred Asteasuainzarra.

Officers discovered Ragusa and the now-16-year-old boy at his house about 12:20 p.m. Monday, the arrest affidavit states. Ragusa had gone to the teen's house to discuss the criminal case but wound up in bed with him, police said.

Detectives nabbed the woman as she was leaving and getting into her boyfriend's truck. Ragusa remained behind bars Tuesday, charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Ragusa was first arrested March 13 and charged with having sex at least three times with a Davidsen Middle School student, then 14, between January and May of 2007. During that relationship, police say she began another with a second Davidsen boy, who was 15 when they started sleeping together in February of 2007.

Ragusa and the second teen, who was one of her math students, had sex at least 20 times, according to the sheriff.

She was initially released March 18 after posting bail, but was re-arrested April 15 when investigators say they determined she'd had sex with a second student. She has been charged with several counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

Ragusa was previously arrested on charges of driving under the influence in 2005, according to police records.

She last taught at Martinez Middle School but remains suspended without pay, according to the Hillsborough County School District.