There are two things that teens should know about posting incendiary, possibly terroristic messages on Facebook in 2014. First, someone’s going to notice and you’re going to get caught. Also, they’re going to take that shit seriously.
Meet Melissa Johnson, which isn’t her real name. Johnson is the Facebook pseudonym created by a 13-year-old Texas girl in order to bully a cancer patient and threaten to kill the whole town.
News92 in Houston reports that first, the teen sent a Facebook message to a 13-year-old boy currently fighting cancer. It said “you should have died.”
Luckily, the boy’s mother intercepted the message.
But wait, there’s more.
It was a status, posted shortly after that incident, that put folks in Splendora, Texas on edge. “I am going to kill everybody in Splendora on July 13th.’” Rather ambitious, but pretty straightforward.
Police say that Facebook was a bit resistant to help them with their investigation into the threat, but eventually gave in. Soon, police had arrested the girl.
What’s her prize for this wonderful episode of Facebook douchebaggery? Terroristic threat charges, which is a third-degree felony! Police also took all of her electronic devices, which to a 13-year-old girl, may have been the worse of the two.
“We hope this young lady will learn from her mistake and do something positive with her life,” said Constable Hayden. “We also hope this is a wakeup call for parents. We cannot stress enough the importance of knowing what your children are doing online and talking to them about the serious consequences they’ll face if they engage in this type of behavior.”
Yeah. That about sums it up. I don’t mean to sound Orwellian here, but you should probably keep an eye on what your 13-year-old is doing online. Thirteen-year-olds have this annoying habit of being stupid as hell.
Image via Montgomery County Constable, via HLN