A pair of middle school students in Warren are facing criminal charges after two separate incidents involving alarming threats of violence shook the community this week. On Monday, authorities were called to Carter Middle School when an 11-year-old girl was found with a "death list" containing multiple students' names written in a notebook. Warren Police responded to the scene as school administrators suspended the girl, who is awaiting a mental health exam, as reported by The Detroit News.
While the girl's mother has responded and is cooperating with the investigation, the case has raised issues surrounding parental responsibility in the wake of the Jennifer Crumbley verdict. Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer touched on the duty parents have to "be aware and responsible for their children’s actions to ensure that the classroom is a safe environment for everyone’s children," Dwyer said, in a statement obtained by The Detroit News.
In a second case the following day, a 13-year-old boy from Chatterton Middle School was arrested after threats made to another student escalated to dangerous levels. A loaded 9mm handgun was found at the boy's home after he had been taken into custody. "We'll present something to the prosecutor’s office and the prosecutor will make a determination in both cases what the appropriate charges will be," Commissioner Dwyer told FOX 2 Detroit, emphasizing law enforcement's obligation to take every threat deathly serious given the recent rise in school violence.
The school district is also firmly addressing these issues, with WCS Superintendent Robert Livernois issuing a call to parents to review children's materials and discuss the gravity of making any form of threat. "The student was removed from school and is now facing very serious discipline and potential criminal charges," Livernois explained in a letter to parents, as noted by The Macomb Daily.
Commissioner Dwyer reiterated the urgency with which such threats are treated by the police department, highlighting that "Last year was a record year for school violence and we take these kinds of situations very seriously," in a statement available through The Macomb Daily. As the cases move to the prosecutor's office and the community seeks to understand the mindset behind these threats, the discussions surrounding accountability, both of the young individuals involved and their guardians, continue to unfold.
