So clearly this teen ager needs help. My two high schoolers were sheltered in place at Paly. Good call by all. Yet mine are worried about what will happen to this underage individual? Is he expelled, shunned from everything. this was a cry for help for certain. Our youth are in peril. Not one, not one Palo Alto certified accepts medi-cal insurance or income based sliding scale (like many other BA communities) for seriously needed therapy services. Many public school kids miss critical academics and feel ashamed for leaving a class for behavioral help from a college student earning hours for license. I keep hearing from County BOS, PA CC, Stanford elite— youth behavioral health is paramount yet, like our housing hole, there is no there, there. As well the fact that many more “psychologists or police officers are present” on a campus does not equate to outreach to services for our youngsters . How to connect youth w human professional services — directly, succinctly, rather than just adding paid human bodies on campus adding to unused budget balloons. Having extra help “staffed”does not equate to the actual connecting of youth to the extra “paid” help. Major disconnection between. Thank the Lord all our kiddos at Paly were safe. And I pray to our Godess’ this youth gets access to a full recovery to his impulsive, consequential actions that frightened and cost the city money to mitigate, investigate, intervene.

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It’s all a tragedy for this student. However my question is was the suspect at large Tuesday Wednesday and this morning until the arrest this afternoon? The school was wide open while a seemingly active threat was going on? That seems irresponsible.

We react & do not prevent or intervene anymore. It’s like the old lady getting mugged in NYC in 1977. the onlookers just stand & stare, powerless. I am not saying get in front of a shooter or run into a burning building. I am pointing out we r numbed by our own invention. This underage child in stress, shouted out, not in a text or an IG or Snap Chat. They physically went 2 a door of a classroom. they were in trouble before the class start. Then taped a typed out note, then went away. The PAUSD instead of overreacting, took these signs & kept our students safe, in place — were not made 2 barricade doors & hide, quiet in the dark. This teen, child of our community needs help, as do his parents. The PAUSD handled this superbly. In my opinion. It was NOT an active threat. Q: should our school children be held hostage to a before school bell note on a door of a classroom? If one child in a class is not vaccinated for a virus or other should the whole class remain sheltered in the library? When I was in HS it was not guns. It was automobiles. Which student will die next in a car over the weekend. It was an explosive atmosphere. Many Monday’s were spent in grief & sorrow over one or many students dying or maimed for life in a horrible car wreck. In fact even one our English teachers was maimed for life by a high school student driver in the early morning getting to school. What is my point? We take risks every day. Our kids attend to school, not purely by choice—by law. Add a Global Pandemic to this equation. In 1917 most US kids barely finished 8th grade. I am certain there was no distance school learning then. If they even missed or shuttered public schools. I have a criticism. Mr Austin has forgotten our school age children’s PTSD from the Pandemic. Yet many of our students still are making up summer credits from the far “distance” learning. Dumb!! All children were left behind! All pass grades. No make up needed.

It's pretty horrible, and wish the community didn't have to go through that and that our society wasn't such that it could even be a threat, yet, I feel real sympathy for the young person involved. High-stakes testing is simply not necessary and is often counterproductive. The student was put in a position in which their entire future was threatened by the set up and by the way a young person (in their immaturity) reacted to it. Simply unnecessary.

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The student is 17, the brain is immature until age 25. Kids do stupid things. A lot of overreaction here. Back in the day, we would just move forward and call it a prank. PAUSD should install cameras around campuses. I don't know if Jerry Berkson has the energy though. [Portion removed.]

The way they identified the student was with the on campus camera footage. A note said that the school would be shot up. I see no reason not to think it was a real threat unless people around here are thinking “a school shooting won’t happen here”. That’s a pretty entitled view. Imagine the headlines. A note was put up that the school would be shot up, then the next day it happens and the world would say “why did they ignore that not?” Well, because the people thought it wouldn’t happen here. Not a good way to operate in my opinion. Also it’s more effective when people use their real names in this forum.

Are we surprised that with all the violence written in the media and shown on television, our youngsters, whose frontal brain lobes don't mature until about 25 years of age, try to be copy cats?

This young man needs to be admonished by his own parents and the three of them should go to counseling together.

Thanks to the Paly staff and police did a good job in keeping the students safe when it happened on Tues. We(parents) and my Paly kid feel sad this happened in our school and district. We hope that kid and the family seek help right away.

My hope is the student will be tried as an adult and given a harsh sentence to send a message that this is not ok. Do not hide behind any excuses , actions have consequences in society , time to learn them.
Think back to Brock Turner , was that sentence ok ? A threat to kill classmates and a teacher is not a joke , not now , not in the future

Well done Palo Alto Police to solve this so quickly. We don't know the mindset of this 17-year old boy, could have been as simple as he didn't want to take the final or it could have been community-shattering. The fact he was arrested and not dealt with internally, sends a strong message to other students who might be thinking of this type of threat as a prank. You just can't do this.

For me, I don't see this as a person who is in need of mental health. I see this as a person who felt entitled to inconvenience and scare thousands of people for his own gain. As a mother of teenage girls currently at PALY, the amount of disrespect I see from the boys at PALY is just gross. These kids are not being raised well. The focus is all about the academics but not about teaching empathy and respect. But...I am sure this kid has a 4.5 GPA and is probably headed to an Ivy or other top 20 school

I agree that this is probably just some dumb kid, and we don't want their lives to be permanently scarred for one stupid mistake, but there should be some consequences. My middle school daughter was put in shelter in place for a few hours because of this threat, and she's now having nightmares. [Portion removed.]

I think this is serious and the perpetrator knew exactly what he was doing so punishment is needed. It is not ok to threaten hundreds of people.

I have two kids at Paly one of who was affected more than the other by the shelter in place. It is really sad that the 17-year-old made such a poor choice. While I hope he gets a consequence for it, I also hope that his life is not ruined because of this. Not sure what motivated the student to do something so drastic but I am certain our culture as a competitive society does not help these young folks. Right from elementary school, there is nothing that kids do that is either not uber-curated or done with the college goal hanging on their heads. Even free play is curated and controlled. There is no community or spirituality (and I don't mean religion here). Friendships in elementary are curated, activities are curated, and sports and music is done only to look good on college applications and is super expensive. We the parents (and I include myself in this) are always looking for bragging points and kids that don't fit into the "super kid, all-rounder, child prodigy" box feel the pressure, and the shame. My own kid has told me how the constant talking of APs, math lanes, colleges, and extracurriculars affects them. I can tell from talking to many of my peer parents whose kids go to Foothill College that they feel the need to justify why the kid goes to Foothill or does not want to go to college. Again, I don't assume to know what happened with this kid but I sincerely hope not all is lost for this teen. I am ready to be done with HS for my kids.

@Talltree Right on!! Exactly. I have 2 at paly each had different reactions and feelings to the incident. Yet both empathetic and caring for the campus they spend 6 hours a more a day on and with fellow students and yes, the perpetrator.

At the same time Parent Square sends out a mass message about it and one cannot reply without a an auto return “this box does not accommodate reply emails”. How stupid is that, this? Same with Austin’s weekly message. The least these mass messages about such a traumatic incident could do is provide a viable reply inbox. No. Not a dumb link . An actual person on the other side who can sift through the messages.

Like this student who had no recourse to be absent from a test, reacted impulsively to get HEARD and cried HELP.

I tried to reply to the Parent Square incident message tonight and this is the auto reply

Hi,

**************** THIS IS AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE *************************

We are sorry. Your email did not reach the intended recipient. This mailbox is not monitored. Please contact your school directly with questions or comments, or visit the ParentSquare website (Web Link to post comments.

Thanks,
Team ParentSquare

I know that news stories such as these lack detail for obvious reasons. It's too bad that this student, if guilty, could not find another outlet for his/her anxiety or frustration if it wasn't just a prank.

Again, given the brevity of the article, maybe Mr. Austin's comments were cut short. I'm glad the cameras worked, but is that all he had to say? How about something along the lines of, "Students, if you are feeling under duress, here are a few resources you can access that may help in a crisis, or may allow you to think twice before you do something you later regret".

Cops and cameras are great, but so are mental health/wellness support services. This would have been a great opportunity for Mr. Austin to reiterate as much on top of praising his "district wide" surveillance.