In Pittston, Pennsylvania, a 14-year-old boy was suspended from school and authorities are considering terrorism threat charges for notebook sketches of Halo.
The student attended Wyoming Valley West Middle School where officials found the boy’s composition notebook in his locker with “crudely drawn” sketches of an assault rifle, a bomb, and a map. He was immediately suspended and the school called the police.
Search warrants were issued and authorities searched the boy’s home as well as the home of his father nearby. According to the Associated Press, the teen’s computer was seized for investigation into whether he was making terroristic threats.
The boy’s mother says the sketches were merely harmless scribblings of a teen obsessed with Halo.
The school, however, has a different story, claiming that the teen threatened a classmate, saying “I’m thinking of murdering you.”
School officials also claim the boy said he “sits on his roof and shoots pigeons with an assault rifle” and had a movie “dealing with snuffing people out.”
According to court documents, the notebook contained messages, including repetitions of the letters “f.t.f.o.”, as well as statements the school deemed threatening.
“There is nothing in there like, ‘I plan to go to the school and blow everyone’s head off,’” the mother said. “This all pertains to the video game. We had proof of that, but they wouldn’t even look at it.”
Wyoming Valley West superintendent Michael Garzella told the Associated Press that school officials acted properly.
“We can't take things for granted. That's how really significant issues occur,” he told the AP. “We have to react on the information we have.”
