Rejection of bill to deter threats upsets educator

BETHEL – Superintendent Kent Rosberg has dealt with threats that pervaded Telstar high school and middle school over the last couple of years. He said he watched as the perpetrators often received a “slap on the wrist.”

Against that backdrop, he can’t understand why a legislative committee last week killed a bill aimed at deterring those bomb threats by taking away the driver’s license of any student caught making a threat.

“This is a high priority for lots of people, and I just can’t believe that committee isn’t going to do anything. It’s beyond comprehension,” he said.

The Criminal Justice Committee, which had given the bill a lukewarm reception during a Jan. 30 public hearing, voted not to recommend passage of the bill to the full Legislature.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. John McDonough, D-Portland, was developed by a six-member panel appointed by the Legislature to look at a problem confronting school districts across the country.

Maine schools received at least 193 bomb threats in the 1999-2000 school year. Most went to high schools, but the threats also affected middle schools, elementary schools and colleges.

SAD 44, which includes Andover, Bethel, Woodstock, Greenwood and Newry, had seven bomb threats last year, so many that school officials had to bring in metal detectors and a police officer to monitor the high school and middle school. This year the school system has had three threats.

The bill would have suspended a youth’s license to drive, work or fish until age 20, if the student was convicted of making a threat. It also would have held parents responsible for up to $10,000 in restitution.

Rosberg said he thought the bill would have been a good first step toward addressing the problem. With kids 14 to 18 so focused on driving, he thought such a punishment would have made a serious statement.

Members of the Criminal Justice Committee applauded the bill’s purpose but frowned on its details.

“At the beginning I supported it,” said Rep. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland. “But we realized it just wasn’t going to do what we wanted it to do.”

Snowe-Mello argued that students who make threats already face stiff penalties, such as suspension and jail time. “We felt that was punishment enough.”

For his part, Rosberg is determined not to give up. “I will campaign on this until I no longer breathe,” he said.