Two 15-year-old boys remain in custody tonight, charged with a slew of offences including conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit sexual assault and uttering threats.
Those threats, police say, were being made on social media where the teens were naming teachers and fellow students as potential victims.
“They'll say, ‘Oh you're so ugly, you deserve to die, no one would miss you if you were dead,’” says one student who spoke to CTV today of the cruel messages teens write to each other on social media.
Last week, police say two teenage boys went a step further, however, and are now face a litany of charges.
“Obviously there's a very fine line between stating something and actually following through with it,” says Barrie police Sgt. Valarie Gates. “However the victims felt threatened that these crimes would be carried out and that lends credence to it and that’s why these charges were laid.”
The pair has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit sexual assault and uttering threats. The teens can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and police are staying tight-lipped about what Barrie high school they attend and who they were threatening.
Police will say the two were exchanging private messages on Facebook, threatening to kill or sexually assault teachers and classmates. On Friday, the father of one of the accused turned his son in.
“You may be worried about your child's privacy but you need to monitor some of these social media profiles, they're young and impressionable and there are things going on in their social media platforms that are not appropriate and you don't want to see things like this happen,” Gates says.
Police hope these charges will be a wakeup call to teens.
“Anything you write can get back to you, it never goes away,” one teen tells CTV.
Another adds, “I think once people realize that there are people going to jail for this they'll see that it's not a joke and there are consequences.”
The two teens appeared in court for a bail hearing this afternoon but their case was put over because the charges are serious enough that a judge needs to rule on bail conditions rather than a justice of the peace. Their bail hearings have been scheduled for tomorrow morning.
