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- 100 MILE HOUSE, B.C. (CP) - A 15-year-old
boy who threatened to go on a shooting rampage at his junior high was been
placed on two year's probation and banned from owning weapons for four
years.
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- The boy, who cannot be identified under
provisions of the Young Offenders Act, pleaded guilty last month to two
counts of uttering threats. He had been held in custody for a psychiatric
assessment before sentencing.
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- The incident began when the Grade 9 student
was suspended at 100 Mile Junior Secondary School.
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- He then threatened to return and kill
a specific teacher and a number of classmates.
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- RCMP went to the boy's home in nearby
70 Mile House and seized 24 guns -- including six pistols -- belonging
to his father as a precaution.
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- The guns were safely stored but police
feared the boy could have access to them.
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- Officers also found six knives in the
boy's bedroom, along with a list naming 10 fellow students and a teacher.
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- The student who reported the threat to
school principal Diane Rhenisch said the boy threatened to come back and
shoot all those who had "bugged" him.
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- Other students said the boy, an army
cadet, was an outsider who was picked on at school. School officials said
he had a history of behaviour and discipline problems.
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- The incident happened about a week after
a disgruntled 14-year-old boy opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at
his high school in rural Taber, Alta., killing one student and badly wounding
another.
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- A week before that, 12 students and a
teacher were gunned down at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colo.,
by two teenage boys out to revenge the harassment they felt they suffered.
The attackers then killed themselves.
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- The Columbine massacre prompted a wave
of copycat threats and warnings to parents and school officials to pay
closer attention to angry kids who may have been bullied or ostracized.
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- Officials in 100 Mile House credited
awareness and education programs in local schools with encouraging the
student to report the boy's threats.
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- 100 Mile House is a town of about 2,000
people, 300 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
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