A teen accused of making a threat against the Simon Youth Academy, an Edinburgh school for at-risk students, is being allowed off electronic monitoring pending an upcoming fact-finding hearing in Bartholomew Juvenile Court.
The 16-year-old from Edinburgh appeared Wednesday with his mother and his attorney, Michael DeArmitt, before Magistrate Heather Mollo at the Bartholomew County Courthouse.
Mollo said she was pleased to hear that the teen had been fully cooperative, respectful and had not had any issues with county juvenile probation officials since his April hearing in juvenile court.
Based on that report, and the agreement among the defense, prosecution and the probation department, the teen was allowed to have his required security monitoring lowered from house arrest with electronic monitoring to home supervision.
The juvenile will have to follow a schedule set up in collaboration with juvenile probation officers as part of the home supervision status, the judge said.
The teen’s fact-finding hearing, the equivalent of a trial in adult court, was set for 1:30 p.m. July 6 in juvenile court.
The court set aside two to five hours for the hearing, when witnesses will testify about the allegations against the teen, court officials said. Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Kay said she plans to call five witnesses during the hearing.
The teen is facing a charge of felony intimidation in juvenile court, accused of showing a sketch depicting a school shooting scene to some of his classmates at Simon Youth Academy in the Edinburgh Premium Outlets on Feb. 21, court records state. A part of the drawing contained images of a classroom, a semi-automatic pistol and bodies identified by student and teacher names, court records state.
The teen was put on electronic monitoring after the incident in the classroom, court officials said.
The boy’s mother told court officials that her son had been looking for a summer job, but the electronic monitoring and home detention made it difficult for any employer to consider him.
The Edinburgh boy’s felony intimidation case is one of three school threat cases that are making their way through Bartholomew County’s juvenile court system.
The first case involved a male juvenile at Columbus East High School who was arrested by Columbus police Feb. 20 after students said he had made a social media threat against the school on SnapChat, suggesting the school would be shot up in two days. He was isolated from the student body and taken into custody on a Level 6 felony intimidation charge, which has since been lowered to a misdemeanor. The outcome of his case will no longer be public as it is no longer a felony case, according to state law regarding juveniles.
The other case happened Feb. 21, the same day as the Simon Youth Academy incident, when a former East student, a male juvenile, is accused of sending a social media response back to a student who had evacuated outdoors after a false fire alarm, making a threat of violence. That teen is also accused of sending a photo of himself holding a firearm via social media to an East student who had evacuated the building. He was also arrested on a Level 6 felony intimidation charge and his case is pending in juvenile court.
The three threats occurred about a week after the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and 17 others injured.
State law allows the media to cover cases against juveniles who are charged with offenses that would be felonies if committed by an adult.
