Teens Didn't Want Vacation To End So They Called In Bomb Threat

[matcom]

<snip>

NANTUCKET -- Not wanting their Nantucket holiday to end, the teenagers resorted to a desperate ploy to extend their good time, authorities said yesterday.

Prosecutors said the four called an island ferry service to warn, ''Don't let the ferry leave or it will blow up."

Their time on the island was indeed extended. All travel to and from the island was cut off Sunday night into Monday morning, while dozens of state and local police, on high terrorist alert after the July 7 London subway bombings, scrambled in search of a bomb that did not exist.

The teenagers were still on the island yesterday, in Nantucket District Court, where two girls and a boy were arraigned on one felony charge each of making a bomb threat, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. The fourth, a 16-year-old boy who lives on the island, faces charges in juvenile court July 26.

The three charged as adults silently appeared in court with their parents yesterday to hear the charges, one wiping away tears as she stood in flip-flops. The three were released on personal recognizance and are due back in court Aug. 17.

Authorities refused to detail exactly why the four teens allegedly called in the threat.

''They just didn't want to leave," said Thomas G. Shack, a prosecutor in the Cape and Islands district attorney's office. ''Some of the kids' parents have property on the island. All of the kids have a relationship to the island."

But three friends and an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said one teenager was headed for an SAT study camp, and the others did not want him to go.

Lawyers for the three teenagers said in court that none had prior criminal convictions. Two of the families are from Connecticut.

''These are good kids from good families," said R. Bradford Bailey, a lawyer who represents two of the teenagers.

Daphne K. Bragg, 17, lives on the island, but attends Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., according to the teenagers' lawyers.

Brendan K. Reed, 17, attends Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut, where he is on the track and ski teams, maintains a 3.0 grade-point average, and recently returned from volunteering in Ecuador.

Brett A. Williams, also 17, attends Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, where she is a student peer leader.

A Nantucket teenager, who works with Bragg at a beach clothing store and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the hoax was prompted by Reed's imminent departure from the island.

''The minute they hung up the phone, they knew they had messed up," said the teenager. ''They never meant to do anything."

The incident disrupted summer life on the tony island, in ways large and small. Hundreds of tourists were stranded, ferry companies and boat services lost money, and police expended resources chasing down the hoax.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/21/teens_reluctance_to_part_tied_to_ferry_bomb_hoax?mode=PF

[youspeakmylanguage]

1. Man, the kids of today...

What the hell ever happened to faking a fever?

[DS1]

2. Rich kids. They'll get off with 20 hours of grass-cutting and fence

painting.

[WeRQ4U]

3. Tantrums have gotten so sophisticated now. I just screamed my ass off.

[xmas74]

4. ...

"But three friends and an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said one teenager was headed for an SAT study camp, and the others did not want him to go."


Most parents can't afford an SAT study camp. Hell, quite a few can't afford to buy groceries and these kids disrupt life over a camp?
They ought to be grateful that their parents can afford to look out for their futures instead of whine about it.

[LoZoccolo]

5. When I was in high school, I did a poor man's SAT study camp.

I would read novels and when I'd see a word I didn't know I'd write it down and look it up and study it. I had to read a bunch of F. Scott Fitzgerald books to do a report on him for English class, and those seemed to work really well!

[xmas74]

6. I used the paper guide that they gave you when you

signed up for the test and went to the library every day for an hour a day to study. I did the SAT's in 7th grade (through a talent id program). My school aimed us toward the ACT. I studied the same way and I did well for myself (considering I had worked the Hardee's drivethrough from 11 pm to 7 am and went straight to the test, which started at 8 am).
I just get annoyed whenever I read or hear about a bunch of kids who come from well-off families whine or do something stupid. If that same camp had been offered for an inner city kid do you think s/he would have whined about it cutting short their summer vacation? Probably not. They would have been thankful for the opportunity and gotten all their supplies ready to go (immediately after finding out about the camp).

[SuperWonk]

7. Kids these days...

The sky is the limit... they have no idea how that one thing will change their lives.

[xmas74]

8. Some of that is true.

Most of that comes from the way they were raised. I don't think that it comes from all kids since we have some wonderful teens who post on this board (and a few of them are also members of the DU Activist).
It just shows that there is a line that needs to be drawn and that too many parents (grandparents, etc) have completely obliterated the line.