An Edinburgh teenager accused of drawing a sketch depicting a school shooting in his Simon Youth Academy classroom will serve nine months of probation.
The 16-year-old juvenile appeared last week in Bartholomew County Juvenile Court before Magistrate Heather Mollo, accompanied by his mother and defense attorney Michael DeArmitt.
Mollo ruled the juvenile should receive a 90-day secure detention sentence, which was suspended, nine months on probation, and pay court costs and probation user fees. The juvenile was also ordered to successfully complete terms of his current probation in Johnson County.
The Edinburgh teen’s charge stems from an incident that occurred within a week of the Feb. 14 school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died.
The Edinburgh juvenile served eight days in secure detention in February, followed by 92 days on electronic monitoring through May, Mollo said. That was followed by 96 days of home supervision, the judge said.
Probation officials said the teen, who is a high school sophomore, is now on 30 days of electronic monitoring in Johnson County as part of his probation on a possession of marijuana accusation.
The disposition was completed after Mollo ruled in August that there was insufficient evidence for the court to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the juvenile had engaged in an act of felony intimidation, which was the original allegation. She said the juvenile committed an act of Class B misdemeanor harassment, and also ruled the juvenile was delinquent.
The teen was accused of showing a sketch depicting a shooting scene to some of his classmates Feb. 21 at the youth academy, located at the Edinburgh Premium Outlets. The drawing contained images of a classroom, a semi-automatic pistol and bodies identified by student and teacher names, court records state.
Before announcing her decision, Mollo spoke directly to the teen, explaining that she was required to evaluate whether he was being accountable for his actions, and to provide measures and services that could lead to success for him in the future. Mollo also said she had to consider the safety of the community, the safety of the juvenile, and the safety of the school in her decision.
Mollo said she was encouraged to learn that the teen was now working one-on-one with a full-time behavior coach and that his family anticipates he might be able to return to a school environment at the beginning of next semester. Until then, the teen is taking online courses.
Describing the teen as on the cusp of success, she said his future now depends on his ability to embrace the services being provided and to learn how to self-regulate himself in order to return to the school environment successfully.
She also mentioned that the report stated that the juvenile felt his actions at the academy had been misconstrued by the juvenile justice system, but said she stood by the decision she had made to find him delinquent.
“The graphic-ness of this — when something like this is put on a piece of paper and someone is shown as being dead, that’s very different,” she said.