Lawmakers aim to change school threat act

Idaho lawmakers are trying to change the way a person can be charged for school threats. This come following last weeks deadly shooting at a school in Florida.

The current Idaho law states that a person can only be charged for threatening a school if they make the threat on school grounds. The new bill is adding “electronic means” to the definition. Meaning, if someone makes a threat online or through social media, they can be charged.

The bill was sent to the House Judiciary Rules Committee, which then sent it on to the amending orders due to concern over some of the language.

“Obviously the intent of the bill was to prevent any school violence, clearly,” Rep. Bryan Zollinger, who is on the Idaho House Judiciary Rules Committee, said. “But some of the thoughts were that kids could make a, out of anger or something, make a threat to a friend and then be pulled in because back home they were, you know, cleaning a hunting rifle with their father, or something like that. There was just, the drafting left a lot of situations to be feared.”

The committee says the language is too broad. For example, they say the section describing threats needs to be better defined.

“What I would like to see, I mean, it needs tightened up,” said Zollinger. “We need to clarify exactly what the nexus is between the threat and the possession of a weapon. We need to maybe clarify exactly what constitutes a threat, how specific it needs to be.”

Despite the concerns over the bill, lawmakers agree that there is a need for a bill such as this.

“I definitely agree with the need,” said Zollinger. “And, you know, I think the entire committee, it’s not a partisan issue, I think the entire committee agrees that we need to tighten up this area of law. It’s important that law enforcement have the tools they need to prevent school violence, school shootings.”

The bill will go through some changes in amending orders then be called to the house floor.