DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and Addison Chief of Police Roy Selvik announced last week that three juveniles, a 14-year-old female from Lombard and two 12-year-old females from Addison, have been charged with threatening an Addison junior high school.
The Lombard juvenile appeared in Juvenile Court on Sept. 9, in front of Judge Chantelle Porter, who ordered she be placed on home detention with electronic monitoring. Her next court date is scheduled for Sept. 25. The first Addison juvenile appeared in Juvenile Court on Sept. 14 in front of Judge Porter, who ordered that she be placed on home detention with electronic monitoring. Her next court date is scheduled for Oct. 1.The second Addison juvenile appeared in Juvenile Court on Sept. 16 in front of Judge Porter, who ordered that she be placed on home detention with electronic monitoring. Her next court date is scheduled for Oct. 23.
The Lombard juvenile is charged with one count of disorderly conduct—transmitting a threat to a school building, a Class 4 felony. The two Addison juveniles have each been charged with two counts of disorderly conduct—transmitting a threat to a school building.
According to the state’s petitions filed in Juvenile Court against the Addison juveniles, on Aug. 11, the two juveniles created and shared with each other a video depicting themselves as cartoon figures “walking around a school, taking out rifles, shooting students and then killing themselves.” Following an investigation into the matter, it is alleged that the video contained a hand-written map showing the interior layout of Indian Trail Junior High School, 222 John F. Kennedy Drive, with the lunchroom, office, nurse and bathroom labeled. The video depicted the juveniles shooting in the hallway at drawn figures, with the sounds of gunshots and screams.
According to the petition filed against the Lombard juvenile, approximately two weeks later, on Aug. 29, the juvenile allegedly “transmitted a threat of violence, death or bodily harm directed at persons at Indian Trail Junior High School” via Snapchat and WhatsApp to one of the Addison juveniles by “asking her about security measures at Indian Trail Junior High School” and stating that “she was going to buy a gun when she was 15, that she would do a school shooting in 2030, and that when she turned 15 she would come to Indian Trail Junior High School and conduct a school shooting.”
The matter came to the attention of authorities after two students at one of the Addison juvenile’s school allegedly overheard the juvenile talking on the phone about the plot with the Lombard juvenile. The students immediately contacted the school resource officer. An investigation into the matter conducted by the Addison Police Department led to the three juveniles as the people allegedly involved in the threatening correspondence.
“First and foremost, I commend the students who brought this matter to authorities for their courage and concern for their fellow students and staff,” Berlin said. “They absolutely did the right thing and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. It is because of their actions, a possible tragedy has been prevented. With the school year just beginning, I want to remind everyone that school safety remains a top priority of my office. Schools are central to our communities and incidents or threats that jeopardize the safety of our schools can have a chilling effect on not only the students and staff at the school, but all of us.
“It is incumbent upon us that we all work together to ensure our schools remain a safe place where teachers can teach and students can learn without fear for their personal safety. My office takes any sign of potential violence, real or perceived, involving a school very seriously and anyone suspected of any such behavior will be investigated and charged accordingly. Today’s charges will not only hold these juveniles accountable for their alleged actions but will also give our juvenile justice system the opportunity to get them the help they need to get on the right track.
“Again, I thank the students for bringing this matter to our attention and I remind all of our students, if you see something, say something. I thank authorities at Indian Trail Junior High School for their cooperation throughout the investigation and for their continued dedication to school safety. I also thank the Addison Police Department for their efforts on this case.”
“The safety and security of our students and staff remain our absolute priority, and we take every threat to our schools very seriously,” Selvik said. “This incident and the nature of the threats are incredibly disturbing. I highly commend the quick response by Addison detectives as well as the strong support of State’s Attorney Bob Berlin, whose efforts prevented what could have been a very real threat to our community.”
