Posted on 03/03/2016 7:33:44 AM PST by simpson96
Four students in Payette are in a whole lot of hot water.
Payette Police Chief Mark Clark said investigators believe the four boys - three high-schoolers and one middle-school student, all younger than 18 - torched the high school principal's house a week ago and stole items after breaking into cars. They face felony charges, Clark said.
The chief said Tuesday he'd asked for a judge to issue a warrant for the boys' arrest. Those warrants were issued Wednesday, and three of the four boys were in custody by the end of the day.
A fire consumed the home of Principal Mark Heleker in the early morning hours of Monday, Feb. 22. Heleker; his wife, Lorrie, a teacher; and their daughter, Katie Erwin, 24, escaped with their lives, pets and a few personal mementos.
The house and three cars in the driveway were destroyed by the fire, which was quickly deemed suspicious. Fire Chief Steve Castaneda said the fire started in a plastic trash can in the driveway in front of the house.
Heleker's son made him aware of some comments about the fire made on social media by students, and he notified fire officials. Casteneda said he turned that information over to police.
"There was talk swirling around, and that kind of created a path to follow," Heleker said.(snip)
He’s been a Green Bay Packers fan since he was 4 years old, and he lost a large collection of memorabilia in the fire. The Packers lanyard that he wore to work after the fire was so smoky that it stunk up the office. It inspired his assistant principal, Jason Dransfield, to contact the Packers for some new gear.
"I didn't know that happened," Heleker said. "A box arrived with all kinds of autographed memorabilia."
(Excerpt) Read more at idahostatesman.com ...
These kids are going to be very sorry for their evil stupidity.
Reprehensible, but mixed emotions.
I’m a Bears fan.
Kids today are much bigger troublemakers than when I was young. Of course, I'm sure that my parents, and their parents, said the same thing.
Ok, the principal disciplined you and you want revenge, I get that. But, setting fire to his house? Somebody could have died. At the very least, in a small town, the perps will be caught and punished. Then they brag about it online? Don't they realize they are bragging about committing a crime? What am I missing?
These young men have screwed up their lives as surely as if they had put a gun to their own heads and pulled the trigger. It’s all downhill for them now.
CC
Carlina Sandilee Thebo
Two were stipends for overdosing on drugs in the parking lot. One is dealing with issues because his mother (36) was recently jailed due to having sex with a 14 year old. But I can't remember why the other ones were suspended though.
Carlina Sandilee Thebo
*Suspended
When I was a kid, I could see maybe going to T.P. the principal's house. Maybe. Or, if someone was really daring, flattening a tire or four in the school parking lot. None of that happened by the way, but I could at least imagine it.
Stupid? Sure. But, teenaged boys do stupid things.
As I said before, though, burning his house down is so horrifically serious that it wouldn't even have occurred to us. And if it had, bragging about it online for everyone to see - in a small town, where there are no secrets anyway .... man, that's weapons-grade stupidity, right there. Even at my dumbest, I'd have known better - ditto that for my friends (and some of them did things that made me look like a right genius...dim bulbs, to be sure).
Lucky that no one was killed.
Good post.
Here in my town the Superintendant and students trade snarky Tweets.
In my view, the Sup is crazy to do even that.
The end-result of moral relativism. When ‘if it feels good, do it’ is the basis of your teachings, don’t be surprised when ‘Lord of the Flies’ becomes the norm.
I was a wild child on the era in which the term was born but whatever happened to rolling a teachers yard or egging their house
Going all Talking Heads on the principals home could have killed someone
But I do recall at Jackson Prep in 1973 someone maybe torched Mr Ballards mid 60s Beige Thunderbird or it just caught on fire sitting in the teachers parking lot....that pic is still in my annual
He wept....I didn’t know who did it but we felt sorry for him even though he was the dreaded Algebra II and Trig teacher
We rolled teacher Ruby Guest house cause she was so sweet and hot....hope her husband wasn’t mad
Unless the older ones can be tried as adults, they’ll be sent to juvie and be out before the new house is built.
IMO, Kids don't want this. They might say different, but in general, they want solid authority figures, and they want to know where the line is, at all times.
Adults are in charge and responsible, and the kids are who they're responsible for. End of story. That doesn't mean that (in your example) the Super can't ever be polite and friendly, but there is a line that should never be crossed.
WBill Jr is a great kid. I love spending time with him, doing all sorts of fun things. He's got a wicked sense of humor, too, that's coming out more and more as he gets older. But, I'm his dad, not his best friend, and that's the way it is.
I’ll wager a guess that the trash can was full of shite and they expected the principle to come out and put the fire out. Maybe wind conditions and the fact that the trash can was plastic blew the flames onto the house. Not sticking up for the kids at all. pretty dumb.
There’s an article which used to be posted periodically on FR comparing what teachers considered to be the worst disciplinary problems they faced from students. I think one era was the Fifties, the other the Eighties. It was a shock to see things like “chewing gum” and “talking in class” from one era, and things like “drugs” and “teen pregnancy” from the later era.
But they are good boys no doubt. I’m sure their mom will say so. Plus, I’m sure they were only trying to set the trash can on fire to scare the principal. [/sarc]
If it was a '65 T-Bird...that's a hanging offense in my book.
I remember almost getting myself and my siblings expelled from Catholic school because there was this one teacher I couldn’t stand, and the feeling was mutual (she wasn’t a nun, and she had a daughter in my class, with whom I also had animosity).
So I wrote a poem about the teacher-it wasn’t a gem of literary genius to say the least but hey, it was just a spite poem and it was fourth grade-I still remember the poem-
“Mrs Cook is fat
She stinks like a rat
She smells like heck
She looks like a wreck”.
I showed it to a supposed friend (a guy) and for some unknown reason, he ratted me out. It was a great big deal, there was me and I think 4 or 5 of my 10 siblings in school at the time (it’s been eons ago, I can’t believe I still remember the poem).
We didn’t get expelled, but our parents took us out anyway, because they didn’t think much of Mrs Cook either, and believe me, that was unprecedented, because my parents were the kind who if you got in trouble in school, you got in trouble again when you got home.
I think Mrs Cook, even though Catholic, had something against our large family (at least that’s the impression I recall from my parents).
What mischievous little scamps.
I can’t remember anyone doing anything to our principals. One lived in my neighborhood. Our pine trees were not easy to roll. Plus, he was a World War II veteran pilot, so he was well loved and respected. A classmate’s dad was principal of our junior high. If his yard was ever rolled, I don’t recall that either. It would have been aimed at his son or daughter if it had happened. But both of these men were respected. I see so much disrespect these days from children to adults. A third grader slapped his teacher yesterday at my daughter’s school. Then he slapped the female assistant principal. That is crazy!
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