Teenagers who make school threats face almost no punitive consequences for actions that would be felonies if they were adults, a Times Union investigation has found.
Despite actions that can leave hundreds of children terrorized, juvenile offenders almost never go to juvenile detention, prosecutors and school administrators say. They rarely face a judge. Mainly, according to data from Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties, they are offered counseling.
Adults go to prison. An adult who called in a bomb threat against a Clifton Park daycare in 2023 was sentenced to six years in prison, after being arrested on the same charge as many of the juveniles who have made school threats: making a terroristic threat. In New York state, the maximum prison sentence for that charge is seven years.
Read more at Times Union.
