Angry, offensive messages started popping up more than a year ago on the Glen A. Wilson High School page on Wikipedia, the popular user-edited online encyclopedia.
The writer, who said he was a student, hid behind an anonymous e-mail address to threaten by name Asian students at the San Gabriel Valley school, hurl racial slurs at the school's primarily Asian badminton team and allude to possible attacks.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, May 03, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
High school threats: An article in Tuesday's California section said threats posted on Glen A. Wilson High School's Wikipedia page came from an anonymous e-mail address. The threats were posted by a user who had not registered with Wikipedia. He posted to the site using an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a number generated by the computer or device he was using.
"I would love to see her shot right between the eyes with blood gushing out from her mouth begging for mercy as she clings onto a single shred of life," read a message about an Asian student posted May 28, 2007. "Haha now there's a great fantasy."
School district officials and sheriff's detectives did not start investigating the messages until two weeks ago, after Wikipedia staff alerted them to a violent threat posted April 16, the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting and a few days before the anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.
"On Friday, April 18, 2008, there will be a shooting at this school," the threat said, promising to target "a good majority of the badminton team and almost every single fob" -- a reference to recent Asian immigrants "fresh off the boat."
"Take this text down," the message warned, "and it will guarantee their death."
On the 17th, after another threat was posted on the page, school officials canceled classes for the following day. That day investigators arrested a 15-year-old Wilson student. The student, whose name has not been released, pleaded not guilty April 22 to seven counts of making criminal threats and was being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall pending a psychological evaluation. His next hearing is scheduled for May 9.
As authorities investigate previous messages the student may have posted on Wikipedia and MySpace that could lead to other charges, they are considering how best to monitor the school's 1,700 computer-savvy students and their virtual social lives.
On Wednesday, school officials and investigators met with about 200 parents in the Wilson High School gym to discuss the threats. Parents scrawled questions on index cards, which administrators read aloud:
"Was the threat a prank?"
"Did the police know about the messages posted last year?"
"Were messages sent from a school computer? If so, why did school officials wait until after the second threat to close the school?"
