South Carolina PingAdd me to the list. / Remove me from the list.
Posted on 04/20/2008 9:44:29 PM PDT by upchuck
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A high school senior collected enough supplies to carry out a bomb attack on his school and detailed the plot in a hate-filled diary that included maps of the building and admiring notations about the Columbine killers, authorities said Sunday.
Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal, said the town's police chief, Randall Lear.
The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.
"The only thing left was delivering the bombs," the police chief said.
Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.
He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn't detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.
"He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich boys with good-looking girlfriends," Lear said.
In his writings, Schallenberger said he admired the two teens who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 before committing suicide, Lear said. The attack happened nine years ago Sunday, but Lear said investigators do not know whether there was any link between the anniversary and Schallenberger's plans.
Schallenberger was one of the top students at the high school of about 580 students and had not caused any serious problems before his arrest, principal Scott Radkin said.
The school's Web site lists Schallenberger as a member of the 2007 academic bowl squad. He won an academic award from Newberry College in the last school year.
The teen was in the Chesterfield County jail Sunday night, charged with possessing materials to make bombs, the police chief said. A bond hearing was scheduled for Monday. Other than the bomb-making material, no other weapons were found at his home, Lear said.
Lear said Schallenberger did not have an attorney. His parents could not immediately be located Sunday by The Associated Press.
Security will be tightened at the school when students return Monday. Students will walk through metal detectors borrowed from a courthouse, and bomb and drug sniffing dogs have been called in. Lear said he does not expect any problems.
Chesterfield is a town of about 1,500 people in northeastern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.
Bill Ayers (the yer is pronounced as s),the terrorist bomber, is an education specialist. Is that where all this cr@p is coming from?
Unlike the Columbine situation, the parents here called the police and put the needs of others first. What a hard call that must have been.
Probably similar to the FBI agent in the Atlanta area several years ago who learned his son was involved in a murder and convinced his son to turn himself in to the authorities or he would do it himself.
Ping
Yes it was, but they must also have realized that is the best way to get him the mental help he obviously needs.
Unlike the Columbine situation, the parents here called the police and put the needs of others first. What a hard call that must have been.
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I was born and raised within ten miles of the Chesterfield county courthouse which was the site of the first secession meeting held in South Carolina.
Are you sure on the secession planning? Abbeville, SC is noted as the location of the first secession meeting. Pretty much at the end of Magazine Street (also the street where most of Sleeping With a Stranger was filmed).
These parents should receive a medal. If only there were more like that.
Abbeville claimed to be the first but most accounts have now been revised to list Chesterfield as the site of the first meeting. Chesterfield was wiped off the map by Sherman and some historians say this was because Sherman had a special hatred for the town because the first secession meeting was held there. Most records prior to the war were burned along with the courthouse. I always had thought the first secession meeting must have been held at Charleston until recently. When I was growing up the only things Chesterfield county was famous for were watermelons.
How do we explain the phenomenon of homicidal kids, which until the last 20 years or so was virtually unheard of? Television? movies? Working moms? MTV? Over-medication? Global warming? These mutants have to come from somewhere?
Those parents were really wise and courageous. They saved their son’s life and the lives of many others. If their son has serious psychiatric problems, they can now be dealt with and he might still be able to live a productive life.
They have effectively lost a son here. Don't think a medal would cover it.
Kids have always been angry. Nothing new there. Boys have always been overactive. Nothing new there, either.
But, when you take away "tag" as too rough, dodgeball as "too competitive" and so on and so forth...that outlet to channel some of the aggression is lost. Tell the boy he's got ADD or OCD or ADHD and that he's a "problem child", and trying to live down that label will make him angrier.
Throw in a handful of heavy-duty, mood-altering drugs. Then, add 24/7 news-coverage - INSTANT NOTORIETY - of every maladjusted twit that shoots up a school and...Presto.
I'm not making excuses for it. I'm not even saying that all of these were factors in this particular instance. I'm just putting the ideas out there. Unfortunately, short of a total societal revamp, I don't see any way of changing things, anytime in the near future.
“Throw in a handful of heavy-duty, mood-altering drugs. Then, add 24/7 news-coverage - INSTANT NOTORIETY - of every maladjusted twit that shoots up a school and...Presto.”
You may have something there. In the current celebritocracy, it doesnt matter WHY you are famous, its just the fame thats important. And what can a kid do to become famous faster than to shoot up a school?
And, in making that point, you hit on the easiest way to stop these attacks from occuring.
A simple news blackout on the names/faces/manifestos/etc of these kids would, I think, nip the problem in the bud. No publicity = Less reason to blow up schools.
I think that a voluntary blackout would be the moral, correct thing for news organizations to do. Problem is, when has a "journalist" ever done the moral, correct thing? Or, for that matter, a TV station chasing the almighty dollar?
“Honey, your fertilizer’s here!”
“I didn’t order any fertilizer, did you?”
“Why, no.”
“Oh, cool, my b...uh, fertilizer’s here. Thanks, Mom.”
“...call 911.”
}:-)4
“He won’t allow us into his room”.
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