Edison Middle School students charged and released for threatening area schools | Courts, police, fire department

URBANA – A 13-year-old Unit 4 student was released from police custody Wednesday after being charged with disorderly conduct Monday in connection with an incident in which threats against local schools were posted online.

Champaign County Judge Chad Beckett ordered the student's release from juvenile hall after District Attorney Julia Rietz declined to file a motion to detain the youth, arguing that the boy had no criminal record and his parents had cooperated with authorities.

On Monday, officers were dispatched to Edison Middle School around 1:50 p.m. because threats had been posted on social media against several schools in the area. Once on site, they learned that a post was circulating in Edison that mentioned the three Unit 4 middle schools by name.

Rietz claimed that the 13-year-old sent a threatening message to at least one other student via the social media platform Snapchat before it went viral.

A school security officer obtained the post's IP address from Snapchat through its law enforcement portal, which is a unique string of numbers that identifies a device on a network.

This led investigators to the 13-year-old's residence on Tuesday, where the student admitted to writing the post, Rietz said.

Under the terms of his release, the 13-year-old is not allowed to use social media on the Internet, must stay at home or accompanied by his parents at all times, and must attend school with the permission of the school administration.

Disorderly conduct – defined in this case as threatening violence, death, or bodily harm toward anyone at a school – is a Class 4 felony punishable by probation or one to three years in prison.

Because the 13-year-old is a minor, he could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment in a youth correctional facility or a suspended sentence outside of prison. He is due to appear in court again early next month.