ANDREW PIERSON

School turns joke into chaos; students out for three days

LAWRENCEVILLE – A situation emerging on the eve of a school shooting anniversary got two Lawrenceville-area kids suspended for three days…and created some uproar with their families, prompting some to believe that in the absence of an actual crime, some might prefer to see one created.

The parents of two students at Lawrenceville High School – one of which is of adult age (18), the other just 16 – say their kids were the targets, not of law enforcement or of school administration/officials, but of other students. And now they’re seeking to set the record straight, because, they say, it’s the absence of being able to make the matter public that may have brought the situation on in the first place.

According to Illinois law, officials at any school are prohibited from discussing details of any disciplinary action regarding students. They are also prohibited from disseminating a student’s name even if that student is of majority age.

This creates unique problems for school administrators, who, when faced with a situation of a school threat or similar incident that occurs on school grounds, really want to give information to the public and in particular, the parents…but by and large have to go with vague inferences, much of which just gets into maddening levels of non-information.

The mess that embroiled Andrew Pierson, 18, of Lawrence County in mid-April was reportedly fueled by people who didn’t understand the boy’s sense of humor, apparently...but unfortunately, it was stoked by both kids and adults on social media and implied that photos like these - which are highly typical of a kid his age - on his own social sites indicated “something wrong” with him...but which show only a responsible gun enthusiast (bottom) and a practical joker (above), both of which again characterize a typical teen.

Add into the mix the pervasiveness of social networking, which now gives everyone and their dog (literally) an opportunity to claim their 15 minutes of fame, and the situation can be confusing and exasperating.

It was this mess that began brewing on Wednesday, April 19, with Andrew Pierson, the 18-year-old who has been identified to Disclosure by his mother, Robin Detty-Pierson.

As it turned out, that date was the eve of the 18th anniversary of a sad event: The Columbine High School shooting massacre, which happened in Colorado on April 20, 1999.

“My child made the mistake of telling what I believe was a horrific joke Wednesday,” Detty-Pierson said. “He jokingly told another friend to ‘not come to school tomorrow,’” that being a reference, she said, to the Columbine massacre.

As kids often don’t have filters and aren’t always cognizant of how their words and actions can impact others, and because their worldview can often come from a perspective far different from those around them, another student overheard this comment and apparently took it completely the wrong way. That student, said Detty-Pierson, reported Andrew to school officials.

“The principal called Andrew into his office and talked to him,” Detty-Pierson said, “searched his locker and truck. Cleared him of the incident. Called me to explain to me and asked me to speak with him to impress upon him the gravity of the situation, to explain to him that with the world we live in, jokes about this are taken seriously.”

She then said the principal called her back an hour later.

“He called to explain that other children and adults were spreading this like wildfire, and that he was trying to contain it,” Detty-Pierson said. “Then three hours later I got the call for us to meet at the school Thursday morning at 8:30.”

There, they spoke with the principal, vice principal, and the police.

“They were there to explain the severity of the situation to us,” she said. “He was sent home for three days hoping it would be enough time for everything to calm down.”

That, she said, didn’t look like it was going to happen anytime soon, even with all the effort involved.

“It doesn’t, thanks to children and adults wanting to create panic and chaos,” she said, “or maybe they want their 5 minutes of social media fame.”

Unfortunately for the teen girl caught up in the mid-April debacle at the school in Lawrenceville, these two screenshots were held up as evidence that “something was wrong,” when in reality, she’s merely a true crime enthusiast and is researching a career in criminal psychology.

The matter seemed to have been supported by another student – the 16-year-old female – who had made comments and postings pertaining to Columbine on her social media.

However, that child’s mother said that her daughter, too, was suffering because none of the posts her child made were direct, nor even indirect, threats and could not be construed as such.

“It’s a bunch of kids who started rumors and their parents helped create mass hysteria,” the juvenile female’s mom said the next day. “The school even knew there was no threat in any way.”

She said she was told that last phrase – that there was no direct or indirect threat in her daughter’s postings, mainly on Instagram – “every time I’ve spoken to them. This is a ridiculous escalation by social media and people spewing lies because they supposedly heard it.”

The girl’s mother said that “these aren’t small accusations; this is a kid’s life getting ruined by rumors.”

The postings her daughter made about the Columbine shooting came in the form of photos of the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as hashtags bearing reference to the Columbine massacre as well as “true crime community.”

The girl’s mother said that of course the child is going to reference that, as she’s into true crime and has been for a while, to the point that she’s planning on going to school for criminal psychology.

“She’s intelligent, she’s a good kid, a good student, never been in trouble,” her mother said. “She’s ‘weird’ for so-called small-minded people who can see outside the box of what’s called ‘normal’ in their eyes.”

Her mother said she has an interest in an “offensive” subject, and even wrote a paper on how stuff like this could be prevented, just a few weeks ago.

The mother of the teen girl said she plans on contacting a lawyer over the situation, as the girl, too, was sent home from school for three days, ostensibly to “let things die down.”

Detty-Pierson wasn’t quite so quick to cast the finger of blame on anyone in a position of authority, however.

“The school, I believe, did what was right,” she said. “My son messed up and then they were forced into more actions trying to find a way to keep the peace for all students and parents. I have no ill feelings towards the school system; as a parent, it eases my mind that they were willing to take the steps to ensure children’s safety.”

As to the police presence on that Thursday morning, April 20, Detty-Pierson said she wasn’t upset about that either.

“They investigated and had the facts before meeting with us,” she said, emphasizing that the complaints she has pertain mostly to the way the kids changed the reality of the situation, and rampantly spread it.

“They were very cruel and indecent without having all the facts,” she said of the students involved in it. “And the parents were just as bad.”

The kids were allowed to return to school Tuesday, April 25, the young lady to classes and activities that will hopefully lend to her future in criminal psychology, Andrew Pierson to the classes in which he excels, which include science, history, emerging media, and computers; and she said that he finds time to play guitar, and is going to college for audio engineering and recording later this year at Vincennes University.

Authorities at the school issued a letter that was sent home Thursday morning, April 20, to all parents, which, can be read at Disclosure’s website, and which, said many parents, did little but cause more consternation, as the school, as noted at the outset of the article, is strictly limited as to what they can and cannot say about students and the actions thereof.