Law Update

By Mark Walsh

Nearly two years after the violence at Columbine High School, and just a few weeks before the March 5 school shootings in Santee, Calif., a court in North Carolina was grappling with one of the safety issues prompted by such incidents.

The North Carolina case involves the atmosphere of edginess and fear of copycat crimes that typically follow a major act of school violence. On May 4, 1999, about two weeks after the Columbine shootings in Jefferson County, Colo., rumors about a bomb circulated at Hoggard High School in Wilmington, N.C. The principal asked parents to help patrol the halls that day, and more than 500 students out of 2,500 were absent, well more than normal.

A student in a keyboarding class discovered a computer screen saver with the message, "The end is near." Police were called in, and they confronted a student whom they suspected of creating the message. The student, Joshua Mortimer, admitted writing it but said it didn't mean anything harmful. But the sophomore was charged as an adult with the misdemeanor crime of communicating a threat. He was also suspended and...