A Marana teenager who posted some alarming comments on Facebook has been placed on one year of probation.
Jake Garner Brown, 19, pleaded guilty to interference with or disruption of an educational institution, a misdemeanor.
Brown and Otis Bartley, Marana High School graduates, were arrested in Jan. 24, 2011, after they posted a series of messages on Facebook saying such things as “Marana High School is going to need a Band-aid,” “Marana high school, r.i.p.” and “Marana has never seen anything like what is going to take place on 1/25/11.”
The next day 276 students skipped school, about 100 more than are typically absent, Deputy Pima County Attorney Danielle Constant wrote in court documents.
In addition, the school was swamped by so many phone calls from concerned parents that staff members couldn't perform their normal duties, Constant said. Teachers had to alter their lesson plans to discuss the postings and school counselors saw an unusually high number of students on that day and the subsequent days.
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The teens were indicted on a felony charge of interference with or disruption of an educational Institution.
Defense attorneys Barry Baker-Sipe and Joel Feinman were unable to get the case dismissed. They argued the teens were joking around and there was “no material or substantial disruption” at the school.
A material disruption would be if teachers couldn’t finish the year or students had to seek counseling, Baker-Sipe said in court documents.
In his motion to dismiss, Baker-Sipe wrote “Jake and Otis had no guns, ammunition, weapons, explosives, plans or writings, for mass shootings or bombings. Jake and Otis had no intention of hurting any person or damaging any property . . . Jake and Otis did not think of the following events before they posted their messages — Columbine High School’s shootings in Colorado, Tucson’s recent shooting of . . . Gabrielle Giffords, or Timothy McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma.”
Feinman, in his pleading said the government violates a person’s First Amendment rights when “it prosecutes that person for actions that only potentially, and do not actually, disturb the normal operations of a school.”
Bartley is expected to enter a plea agreement on Aug. 3.
If they’d gone to trial and been convicted, Brown and Bartley could have been sentenced to up to two years in prison and labeled felons.
Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
