TerrorismMichigan teen-ager faces terrorism charges after posting anonymous threats

A 17-year-old Brandon High School student in Oakland County, Michigan has been arrested and accused of posting online threats using the anonymous app, After School. The Oakland County Sheriff’s office contacted the app provider and served subpoenas to identify the anonymous user who posted seventeen messages and five pictures, ranging from “Tomorrow I am going to shoot and kill every last one of you and it’s going to be bigger than Columbine,” “Death to you all,” and “Bang Bang Brandon Bang Bang,” to stock photos of a person holding a pump-action shotgun.

Michigan Live reports that shortly after the messages were posted on the app, more than a dozen sheriff’s deputies arrived at the school on Tuesday, followed by several parents picking up their children from school, and some deciding not to send their children to school the following day. “Obviously, the parents, the students and the teachers were afraid, and understandably so,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. “This wasn’t a prank,” Bouchard said of the threats first made Monday night. “There’s nothing funny about putting parents, students, teachers and staff in fear for their safety.” Brandon schools Superintendent, Matthew Outlaw, told reporters that of the roughly 1,200 students attending school on a regular day in the district, only 750 showed up on Tuesday morning, and the number reduced to 250 by day’s end.

The student arrested is expected to be prosecuted as an adult under terrorism acts, which can be punishable by up to twenty years in prison, or for sending threats over a computer, a felony that carries a ten-year sentence. The After School app acts as an anonymous message board for a school. Messages posted are available for everyone subscribed to the school’s profile.

Bouchard urged parents and school officials to be proactive in dealing with the use of private messaging apps on school grounds, although the message sent by the student could have been sent from anywhere. School officials in New Richmond took swift action in October after a High School student was arrested for posting “Watch out New Richmond I am about shoot up the school 2morro,” on anonymous mobile app Yik Yak. As a result, the school district has banned the app from its Wi-Fi network, and Yik Yak has put up a block on cell towers within 1.5 miles of the high school. “We would encourage parents to contact Apple and ask them to get rid of these anonymous apps,” Bouchard said. “It’s one of those buyer beware things. To the folks that are posting, you are never completely anonymous or above the law,” he added. “That’s what this young man has found out. There’s an archive, digital storage on whatever you put out there… that does not disappear.”

As of Thursday evening, Apple has pulled the After School app from its App Store.