Alleged “Terroristic Facebook Post” Leads to School lockdown, Race a Factor

Matt Kazee Truthmovement.com

March 16 2010

UPDATE: Corrected mistake with links.

Johnson Central High School went in to  “lockdown” on Thursday  March 4 2010 over hyped up rumors of a student turned “gunman” coming to “shoot up the school”.  14-year-old freshman, was arrested at home  between 7-8am  and charged with “Terroristic Threatening” and “Disorderly Conduct.” There is much more to this story then meets the eye.

The 14 year old student, Isaiah Bentley, was one of only three other black students at Johnson Central.  The family now thinks race was a factor in the case.

Public School Review lists the school as 100% white with no minorities. 

Isaiah had just transferred to Johnson Central and had only attended school for two days before he was suspended.  The reason for his suspension  according to Johnson County Superintendent Steve Trimble was “We had a kid that threatened some students yesterday and we suspended that student.”

Inquiries in to exactly what threats Isaiah made to students differ depending on who you ask.  One side though is not being reported on by any of the local news is the side of the accused Isaiah Bently.

“If you only knew Isaiah for a day, you would know he is a good kid.”  said Isaiah’s mother Angela, “The first day was of school was hard for him being one of only three black students in school.  He was teased and harrased, and called nig**er by several other students.”

Angela Bowers of Paintsville, Kentucky a single mother of two told of their apartment being broken in to twice and vandalized with “get out nig**r” spray painted on her wall just a few months ago.  This was a traumatic experience for Angela and her two children.  Determined to make the best of her situation she enrolled her son Isaiah in Johnson County School after being told Isaiah was denied enrollment at Paintsville City School.

“The second day of school was worse for him,” said Angela, “the racial slurs continued by few boys and he got angry and told someone he would like to throw a brick at the boy who was telling everyone to call him he n word”

For some reason the local news in Eastern Kentucky or the Tri-State area have not or will not cover this side of the story.  Instead they hyped the story as if it were a real “teroristic threat.” When assessing threats of a 14 year old child the most important part is to gauge whether the child has the “means” and more importantly the “intent” to commit the crime.  In a nation that has seen way to many mass shootings at schools, any threat against a school system has to be taken seriously.

In the case of Isaiah, a 14 year old who was the victim of racism, in a new school for the first time.  Reaching out to make friends and getting called “nigg*r” because he was making more basketball shots then his while counterpart in the gym.  “Its because he is a nig**r” said the ignorant students.

Harassed and feeling threatened by racism, a 14 year old boy did what any 14 year old boy would do, vent, in an attempt to stand up for himself.  “I would like to throw a brick at him” Isaiah said in jest.  The school sought to punish the victim instead of the real threat of racism in a virtually all white school.  The very few racist remarks by students weren’t recognized  and those students weren’t punished or suspended.  Isaiah was promptly suspend on his second day sent home in disgrace.

Then the rumors began to take a life their own.  In this modern age of fear and ultimate communication of the internet many over looked the old fashion form communication of asking the questions is apparently taboo.  Students began to exaggerate the threats and a few students who now fear being exposed as racists, fabricated a story about Isaiah posting on facebook that he would be back tomorrow to “shoot up the school” and hours later even wilder exaggerations of people claiming he said he would “blow up the school”.

What is even more disturbing then not disciplining students over racial slurs is the fact that Superintendent Steve Trimble saw it necessary to file a police report for someone who said “I would like to throw a brick at him.”  Even more unprofessional was the stunt of putting the school on lockdown and putting all the kids in the gym after you know for certain that he was to be arrested before school.

“We had a kid that threatened some students yesterday and we suspended that student,” said Johnson County Supt. Steve Trimble. “We followed up with a police report. There were a lot of things on the internet and Facebook, according to some information we received, and it was said that some threats were made that he might come back to school today.

“As a precautionary measure, we put our kids from the high school and middle school in the gym and put the schools on lockdown just to be safe. He never did come on our campus. We actually talked to him at his home to make sure he was there. When he was taken into custody, we sent our kids back to class. ”

Thats what started the early morning lockdown of the Johnson County School system.  Many parents rightfully felt panic as they feared the worst, another Virginia Tech.  The one good thing that happened that day was that the school system automatic alert system worked perfectly at Johnson Central, at least some lessons were learned from VT and the alerts went out immediately as opposed to the 2 hours it took for Virginia Tech to alert students and parents.

What cannot be excused was sneaking in a psychological school shooting drill on the parents and students over a 14 year old student with no means or intent to shoot anyone or blow up anything.  Even worse when you happen to know he is at home but you act like he might be on the loose getting ready to bring weapons to school when you know he has no weapons and is at home with his mother.

According to Paintsville City Police Capt. Jason Arms, the student did not have any weapons when he was arrested.

“At no time did he have any weapons,” Arms said. “He was arrested for a threat that he was going to be bringing weapons to school.”

No weapons, no intent, no means, and never did Isaiah post anything on his facebook page about going to bring weapons to school.  Those were all rumors started by a group of white students who used racism and then rumors to get Isaiah in trouble.  They probably never imagined that the school would lockdown and now they are scared.  Scared of the truth about what prompted the lockdown in first place.

When the schools were put on lockdown, an emergency communication system sent messages and phone calls to parents to inform them of what was going on.

“The safety of our students and staff is our top priority,” said Trimble. “Everything else comes second.”

A lot parents got scared, some got mad.   Just be glad the school chose not to use the hyped up threat as an excuse to have a  ‘Shots Fired” drill as was the case in Murfreesboro, Tennessee School Shooting Drill where they tricked the students and parents alike. Telling students that there were “shots fired” and  a shooter on the loose.

The children cried and wet themselves thinking the live shooter drill was the real thing.  School Lockdowns are no laughing matter and should only be used in an emergency.  They should not be used as a way to psychologically prepare students to be shot as was the case in Murfreesboro.

They should not be used to hype fear and run an impromptu schools shooting drill masked as a real threat when you know the 14 year old has no means or intent and is currently being arrested at home all the while acting like he could be coming back to the “gun free zone” with guns as was the case with Johnson County School

Between 7:00- 8:00 am before classes started at Johnson County Schools in Ky,Isaiah Bently, the 14-year-old freshman, was arrested at home and charged with terroristic threatening and disorderly conduct.   He is now being held as a ward of the state with no bond.  Isaiah has been in jail since March 4  over 13 days with absolutely no contact with any of his family or council.  There was a family court hearing today that Angela was not informed about. She discovered it by accident.  The hearing was to see if she was competent enough to have custody of her child.

She was not informed about the hearing at all nor was asked to attend.  After discovering the information about the family court she attended and was granted custody of her child.  She was not allowed to talk to Isaiah or able to see as is no one.  The fears that he is there might be attempts to coarse the 14 year old to sign a statement with promises to see his family again.

“You would have thought he was the underwear bomber, the way they are treating him.”  Angela said, “my son is not a terrorist, he is a good boy, he didn’t post anything on facebook, we don’t even have internet here.”

At the arraignment the judge said “if you post something on the internet there have to be consequences.”  There was no evidence of presented of any posts made and yet there were consequences.  A mother and her son separated with out the ability to talk until the trial at the end of the month.

When one of the few questions posed to Steve Trimble about what was actually posted on  Facebook he stated, “There’s no guarantee that he sent any texts or emails, but we are going to take even rumors of a threat seriously.”

My question is why after a number of calls to WSAZ from the family about the racial threats have they not even looked in to it?  Nor asked the mother for her side of the story or even why the students were not suspended for racial slurs?

A few bad apples in 99% white school get away with making Trimble look like a fool by completely making up the threat of Isaiah coming to school with guns.  Because he is black and poor nobody is standing up for his rights.  The arrest and charge of “terroristic threats” will follow him around for ever, while  the few students who were hatefully calling him nig**r go back to class with a laugh.

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