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The Plymouth Meeting Pa boy with guns in his bedroom was not identified because of his age. All three networks treated his arsenal as worthy of national attention: at least 30 BB guns, an assault rifle, homemade hand grenades, knives and swords. Police told CBS' Maggie Rodriguez that "the boy's mother not only knew he had an assault rifle, she actually bought it for him." ABC's Dan Harris showed us the boy's Website at httie.com, "filled with misspellings" where he claimed to operate the Imperial Cobra Army and styled himself "the world's youngest mercenary." He was home-schooled, having been removed from junior high school 18 months ago "because of bullying," NBC's Ron Allen told us. The police claimed that the boy had confessed to a plot to massacre his former classmates, now high school students, Columbine-style.
CBS and ABC both followed up on yesterday's teenage suicide in Cleveland, showing a student's video of a panicked classroom that had been obtained by local 19 Action News TV. The dead boy was identified as Asa Coon. ABC's Eric Horng (no link) noted that court documents detailed his earlier failed suicide attempt in juvenile detention. CBS' Bianca Solorzano cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control that found that "nearly half of all violence in schools is preceded by warning signs, many times as talk of revenge against bullies." Standing alone, that is a weak statistic. We also need its corollary: how frequently does "talk of revenge against bullies" result in school violence?
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