Student grilled on MySpace Bush threat

[eric&gen 0]

Student grilled on MySpace Bush threat

Girl denies intent to harm president last spring

By DON THOMPSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO - Upset by the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson vented her frustrations with President Bush last spring on her MySpace.com page.

See story below

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She posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand.

She replaced the page last spring after learning in her eighth-grade history class that such threats are a federal offense.

Too late.

Federal authorities had found the page and placed her on their checklist. They finally reached her this week in her molecular biology class.

The 14-year-old freshman at Sacramento's McClatchy High School was taken out of class Wednesday and questioned for about 15 minutes by two Secret Service agents. The incident has upset her parents, who said the agents should have included them when they questioned their daughter.

On Friday, the teenager said the agents' questioning over her page on the popular teenage Internet gathering spot led her to tears.

"I wasn't dangerous. I mean, look at what's (stenciled) on my backpack - it's a heart. I'm a very peace-loving person," said Wilson, an honor student who describes herself as politically passionate. "I'm against the war in Iraq. I'm not going to kill the president."

Her mother, Kirstie Wilson, said two agents showed up at the family's home in the city's upscale Land Park neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, questioned her and promised to return once her daughter was home from school.

After they left, Kirstie Wilson sent a text message to her daughter's cell phone, telling her to come straight home: "there are two men from the secret service that want to talk with you. Apparently you made some death threats against president bush," the message read.

"Are you serious!?!? omg. Am I in a lot of trouble?" her daughter wrote back, using shorthand for "Oh, my God."

Moments later, Kirstie Wilson received another text message from her daughter saying agents had pulled her out of class.

Julia Wilson said the agents threatened her by saying she could be sent to juvenile hall for making the threat.

"They yelled at me a lot," she said. "They were unnecessarily mean."

Julia and her parents said the agents were justified in questioning her over her MySpace.com posting. But they said they believe agents went too far by not waiting until she was out of school and questioning her without a parent present.

They also said the agents should have more quickly figured out they weren't dealing with a real danger. Ultimately, the agents told the teenager they would delete her investigation file.

"She obviously is not a threat to society, if you look at her age, her family background, the cartoonish nature of the MySpace page," said her father, Jim Moose, an environmental law attorney.

"She is just a typical teenage girl who made a mistake," said her mother during an interview at their neatly landscaped home.

"My blood is boiling that they went behind my back."

Assistant Principal Paul Belluomini said the agents gave him the impression the girl's mother knew they were planning to question her daughter at school. There is no legal requirement that parents be notified.

"This has been an ongoing problem," said Ann Brick, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in San Francisco.

[heishe 2]

Wah wah the agents were MEAN

[Nizzy 1]

"Are you serious!?!? omg. Am I in a lot of trouble?" her daughter wrote back, using shorthand for "Oh, my God."

I don't know why but that made me snicker...

Edited October 15, 2006 by Nizzy

[Fandango 1,440]

'Kill _____' should never be used, even in jest.

[eric&gen 0]

Be careful what you say on the internet lol you never know whos spying on us.

[sparkofcreation 0]

"Are you serious!?!? omg. Am I in a lot of trouble?" her daughter wrote back, using shorthand for "Oh, my God."

I don't know why but that made me snicker...

Probably because you know what it means. That's a common trick by writers and translators who fear their audience might not understand a slang or technical term. Such as, "'I was injured by a bomb planted by ETA,' Ms. Andrés said, referring to the militant Basque separatist group."

[Nizzy 1]

I never knew that it was a federal offense to post those things about the prez. I thought we were protected by freedom of speech. But ofcourse I would definitely use common sense before posting things like that.

[Karen_L 1]

I never knew that it was a federal offense to post those things about the prez. I thought we were protected by freedom of speech. But ofcourse I would definitely use common sense before posting things like that.

I think there's an exception for speech that can incite violence. I guess one could argue that, upon reading her MySpace page, someone could have decided that killing the president IS a good idea and then actually gone and done it. But yeah, in general, like LisaD said, people need to think long and hard, no matter how angry they are, before they say or write anything like "Kill _________!!!!" because you can never know what will come of saying or writing something like that in public or what ideas it can put into people's heads.

[Ban Hammer 13,636]

She posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand.

"I wasn't dangerous. I mean, look at what's (stenciled) on my backpack - it's a heart. I'm a very peace-loving person ," said Wilson, an honor student who describes herself as politically passionate. "I'm against the war in Iraq. I'm not going to kill the president."

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