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Violent threats trigger alarm

By Thomas Clouse
Staff writer
May 3, 2007

He's a kid who school officials have known since kindergarten, and they doubt he would have ever carried out the violent plan he detailed in his "Assassination" notebook.

But the recent massacre at Virginia Tech, along with other school shootings nationwide, left authorities in Stevens County with no option but to take his threats to kill "20-30 people" seriously.

Lance Q. Timmering, a 17-year-old junior at Northport High School, located just south of the Canadian border in northeastern Washington state, was taken into custody Thursday and charged with threatening to kill other students in a plan that he later told investigators was part of a game he found on the Internet.

"He was also doing this for attention, and it crossed the line so far that he now has to pay the consequences," said Northport High School Principal Patsy Guglielmino, who placed Timmering on emergency expulsion last week. "In this day and age, you can't be second-guessing people any more."

According to documents filed by the Stevens County Prosecutor's Office, two teachers on April 24 overheard Timmering say, "If you chained two or three exits, you could shoot the students as they came out of the cafeteria."

The teachers also saw him writing in a notebook. Guglielmino obtained that notebook which had "Assassination" scribbled on the cover. Inside Timmering wrote about using various firearms "with the objective of killing 20-30 people," court records state.

Guglielmino, who has worked in the school district for a quarter century, said she later interviewed several of the school's 75 students, and many knew about the plan for at least four days prior to the teachers.

"They knew him. They took it as a game. They didn't believe he would do anything like that. Therefore, they didn't report anything," she said. "I don't have that ability. I had to treat everything as it absolutely was going to happen, and that's what I did."

Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Troberg said Timmering turned himself in to authorities in Colville Thursday to face a charge of felony harassment.

"How viable the threat is, that is something that would be hashed out at trial," Troberg said.

The case started when a substitute teacher overheard the student on April 24 talking with another student. The substitute teacher alerted another teacher, who also heard the student make similar threats.

"She approached Timmering and asked him what was going on, but he laughed and said it was just a game. She told him to stop, but he just walked away," according to court records.

Guglielmino said the student and his parents have cooperated fully with the investigation and school actions.

"This family has taken it very seriously and cooperated by getting their son help, and actually writing public apologies to his community," she said. The student "immediately was very remorseful about what he has done."

However, court records indicate Timmering wasn't immediately remorseful.

He "also acknowledged that when the school sent e-mails to his father about his expulsion, he intercepted them and pretended to be his father in reply, hoping that he could influence the principal to let him stay in school," according to court records. "He also admitted asking the principal's son (apparently also a student) if the son found the ¡¥Assassination' notebook in the principal's office, to rip out the two pages with his writing on them."

The Northport School District has about 200 total students in grades K-12. Guglielmino said she tried to call every family on Sunday to alert them of the situation and to dispel any rumors.

"It's almost like we have had a death. I have had flowers sent to me and cards dropped off that say, ¡¥We know it's a tough time for our small community,'" Guglielmino said. "That's the kind of attention we are getting right now from our parents."

On Monday, law enforcement officials met with about a dozen parents of students from the school.

"The officers report that the parents had learned of the incident and were concerned and angry, several of them walking out during the meeting," the records state. "It is apparent from their reaction that the parents were taking the shooting threats at face value and regarded the matter extremely seriously."

Guglielmino acknowledged that some parents question how the incident was handled.

"While some people's fear is still extremely real and strong, that's a minority right now ¡V at least for those coming forward," she said.

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