DROP-IN:

“I’ve heard it called a prank, but no one here is laughing about it.”

Jim Whiteside

Jersey Superintendent of Schools

AHS ‘prank’ lands teens in trouble

Six teens, including one JCHS student, charged with misdemeanors

By Stephanie Abbajay

Five Alton High School students and one Jersey Community High School student have been charged with criminal misdemeanors after a “prank” at Jersey Community High School last Thursday.

Charges were filed last Thursday against Joshua M. Sievers, 17, and Roger H. Landreth, 17, both of Godfrey, and Derek W. Spencer, 18, of Alton. Each was charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespassing on state land, disorderly conduct and mob action involving two or more people. The names of the other two Alton students were not released because they are minors.

JCHS student, Andrew C. Velsor, 17, was charged Wednesday with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing to state land based upon accountability for conduct of another, in that Velsor aided or attempted to aid the others by showing them how to enter the high school, which was forbidden.

Major Frank Scoggins of the Jerseyville Police Department said the AHS students planned the prank with help of the JCHS student, who was in the class that was targeted.

“They knew each other and they planned this the evening before,” Scoggins said. “The young man involved from JCHS used to attend some of the schools that the Alton youth also attended. They have known each other for some time.”

Scoggins said the students got together the Wednesday evening before the prank to plan it and that on Thursday during his lunch break the Jersey student showed his Alton friends the class he would be in that afternoon.

The charges were filed after four of the AHS students, who were out of school because of spring break, climbed through windows at Jersey Community High School and squirted the class with squirt guns. Witnesses said the four intruders were clad in black and had black bandanas over their faces. After dousing the class, the four students fled the classroom and ran out a side door at JCHS, where a fifth student was waiting in a vehicle. The students were almost immediately apprehended by Jerseyville police officers who had been called moments earlier by a neighbor who had seen suspicious activity.

“The students had pulled into the driveway of a home in the neighborhood behind the school,” Scoggins said. “The homeowner saw the kids get out, put on black clothes, black bandanas over their faces, get out their squirt guns and put tape over their license plates,” he said. “She was frightened and called us right away, so we were already in the neighborhood looking for the vehicle. The vehicle had pulled into the student parking lot, so when the kids exited the high school and ran toward their getaway vehicle we were right there.”

Scoggins said two of the students ran away but gave up almost immediately.

Scoggins said the students thought they were pulling a harmless prank, but police officials aren’t laughing, especially in the wake of Columbine, anthrax, chemical agents and other growing and very real dangers.

“I can safely assume if I see kids squirting each other in a back yard that it is harmless play,” he said. “But when I see kids taping up their license plates, dressing up in black costumes and covering their faces with masks I cannot possibly assume that it is harmless. I’ve got to believe that something very dangerous is about to happen.”

Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby concurred.

“I don’t believe they had any intent to hurt anybody,” Blackorby said. “But school safety is an issue you don’t even joke around about, not anymore. For them to enter our school the way they did, dressed the way they were and with squirt guns, which you don’t know what is in them or really what they are, is very serious. It could also be dangerous for them, too. They are entering a secure building where we have an officer.”
Scoggins said that last point is crucial.

“They are so fortunate this did not get more serious for them,” he said.” None of them happened to know that our school resource officer was not present at that moment. We could be talking about four dead youths from Alton dressed in masks and black attire holding water guns. Had the officer been there he would have to have acted as if they were intruders.”

The four AHS students were able to crawl through open windows into the ground floor classroom. School Superintendent Jim Whiteside said that design is a positive feature, but would be looked at in light of this incident.

“We talked about open windows during the design phase, “ he said. “We think it is a plus that the windows may be opened to allow fresh air, but at the same time we need to review our crisis and safety plans. You try to make the building as contained as possible while still allowing for design features like open windows.”

Whiteside met Tuesday morning with the principal of Alton High School to share information about the incident, but would not discuss any details about the meeting. He said that as far as he was concerned it is a police matter.

AHS principal Philip Trapani said that Alton High must determine if the students broke AHS policies and what, if any, disciplinary action would be taken, though he declined to provide any detailed information.

“We started our investigation today,” Trapani said. “Our responsibility is to determine if there was a violation of our school policy or our codes of conduct and we are in the process of doing that. We have a code of conduct for National Honor Society, athletics, student council and if they are in any of these organization then their actions could be a violation of those codes of conduct.”

When asked if he was surprised by the incident, Trapani said, No.

“I’ve been working with teenagers for 34 years,” he said. “I am not shocked by human behavior. Nothing surprises me when it comes to human behavior.”

Whiteside said the incident is no laughing matter.

“I think the students used poor judgment,” he said. “I’ve heard it called a prank but I don’t think anyone here is laughing about it.”