Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sundubuman]

Did his anti-Americanism lead him to plan to blow up his school???

Reading the press releases on this, no local Philly news outlet even mentioned the Canadian angle of the story yet every Canadian report had it in their headlines. Strange story.

First from a Philly paper

Student judged delinquent over bomb threat

Travis Biehn of Buckingham Twp. will be sentenced in 20 days and could face being jailed until he is 21.

By Larry King

Inquirer Staff Writer

A teen whose bathroom graffiti and collection of bomb-making materials created a scare that shut down his high school for a day was judged delinquent yesterday in Bucks County Juvenile Court.

The ruling - the juvenile equivalent of a guilty verdict - means that Travis Biehn, 17, will return to court within 20 days to learn what will be done with him. The possibilities range from community service to being jailed until he is 21.

Much will depend on what juvenile court authorities are able to glean in the interim about Biehn and his motivations, said Judge Kenneth G. Biehn, who is of no relation to the teen. The judge, who called the youth's behavior "bizarre," urged the boy's family to cooperate with that inquiry.

"He's obviously an angry kid," District Attorney Diane Gibbons said afterward. "What's making him angry, I don't know. What made him angry enough to do this, I don't know."

After a daylong hearing, Biehn adjudicated the youth delinquent on charges of possessing explosive or incendiary materials and making terroristic threats.

Authorities contended that Travis Biehn wrote a bomb threat on a wall at Central Bucks High School East, maintained a Web site showing bomb-making materials in his bedroom, and told friends he had acquired the items to blow things up. A June 1 search of his Buckingham Township bedroom found fuses, potassium nitrate, cylinders, end caps, magnesium and other items that could be used to make explosives.

Travis Biehn did not speak during the hearing. His father, Brant Biehn, testified that the boy had bought the materials for such things as science projects and backyard smoke bombs. Family members and their attorney, William Goldman Jr., left court without comment.

The episode prompted two overnight police searches for explosives at C.B. East, where the teen was a junior. After a second threat appeared on a wall the day after his June 1 arrest, officials took the precaution of closing the school for a day.

It was at least the fourth brush the youth has had with school or law enforcement authorities, and by far the most serious.

In 2001, he was cited for disorderly conduct for selling a homemade napalm-like substance to fellow students at Holicong Middle School. Within the last year, he was detained for shooting paintballs at vehicles on his street. The first case was handled in district court as a summary offense, Gibbons said, and the second was resolved in juvenile court without a formal adjudication.

In early April, Gibbons said, the teen was suspended from school for hacking into its computer system.

Biehn expressed concern yesterday that he knew so little about the youth sitting before him in a red tie, blue shirt and fresh haircut.

"I don't know anything about this young man, so I don't know what I'm going to do with him," the judge said. "I want to make a disposition based on what makes Travis Biehn tick."

Colleen Kocis, a part-time cafeteria and study hall monitor at C.B. East, said it was Travis Biehn himself who first called attention to the bomb threat.

On May 26, Biehn returned to study hall from the bathroom and announced, " 'I saw something written on the wall, something about a bomb threat.' And he was laughing," testified Kocis, who described Biehn's demeanor as "goofy."

Kocis said she did not report the incident. But a day later, teacher Craig Phillips testified, he did report the graffiti to house principal Lynn Vigue after a student in his gym class brought it to his attention.

Principal A. Joseph Jennelle testified that Vigue told him of the threat on June 1. Jennelle said he called an administrative meeting, told Superintendent N. Robert Laws, and announced a $250 reward over the public address system for information about who did it. That afternoon, two students came forward and told Jennelle of the personal Web site Travis Biehn had shown them recently.

The site had a photo of white powder in Biehn's bedroom. "He told me it was potassium nitrate," testified Josh Collins, one of the students. When Collins asked what it was for, he said Biehn responded: "To blow stuff up."

Collins said he spoke up not because of the reward, but for "the safety of our school, myself, and my friends in there."

Buckingham Police Detective Robert McLeod said Travis Biehn feigned ignorance when police went to search his home. "He asked me, 'What bomb threat?'" McLeod testified.

The boy also was attempting to run a program to erase the hard drive of his bedroom computer when police entered, detectives testified.

Thomas Lynch, a Philadelphia police explosives expert, said Biehn had enough materials on hand for making small explosives, but not for a full-scale bomb.

Computer records showed that the teen had bought most of the materials online.

His father testified that he knew of the purchases and had assented, saying his son never used the materials without supervision. "It's all legal," said Brant Biehn, a pharmaceutical marketing director.

Goldman argued that police and the media had created an atmosphere of fear that turned innocent purchases into something sinister.

"Suspicion is not enough. The atmosphere of the press is not enough," Goldman said. As for the threatening graffiti, "To see a threat is not to say that you wrote the threat on the walls," he said.

Assistant District Attorney Robert James countered that the youth's own words - that he bought bomb materials to blow things up - showed his intentions.

"Someone doesn't order 22 pounds of potassium nitrate," James said, "just to make smoke bombs."

[sundubuman]

and from the CBC

Canadian teen "unhappy" living in U.S. found guilty in bomb case
09:35 AM EDT Jun 16
BETH GORHAM

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CP) - A Canadian teenager painted by U.S. authorities as being an angry boy with a hatred for Americans was found guilty Monday of two charges involving a threat to blow up his school.

Travis Biehn's case has ignited fierce debate in this affluent area near Philadelphia about how much risk he truly posed and if he was treated fairly in an emotional climate following the Columbine massacre and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"What we have is a juvenile's bizarre behavior of reporting a bomb threat in the bathroom and laughing about it," said Judge Kenneth Biehn, who's not related to the 17-year-old.

"(He possessed) a lot of material in his house which was capable at some point of manufacturing an incendiary device. Under the law, one doesn't have to have one."

The youth, a tall boy with short brown hair originally from Newfoundland, was led out of court in handcuffs and leg irons past stunned supporters and his stricken parents.

"I think everyone who was in that courtroom was shocked considering the evidence," his mother, Annette, said in a telephone interview after the verdict. "Travis is devastated and shocked and we just have to continue in his best interests."

The teen will remain in custody at a detention facility for up to 20 days while the judge arranges for psychological evaluations and background checks that will have a big impact on his sentencing.

"What makes Travis Biehn tick? I don't know the answer to that," said the judge. "I don't know this young man."

Biehn faces penalties ranging from community service and mental-health treatment to detention until he's 21 years old for uttering a terrorist threat and possessing incendiary material.

"He's a pretty dangerous kid," District Attorney Diane Gibbons said outside court. "He's obviously an unhappy kid and he's obviously an angry kid. What made him angry enough to do this, I don't know."

Gibbons, who noted days ago that Biehn wore an "I am Canadian" T-shirt to his first court appearance, refused to speculate on his motive.

But she repeated assertions that "we've certainly heard he's not happy being in America . . . that he's made anti-American statements. Some people characterize it as a joke, some people don't, depending on who you talk to."

"Whether that has anything to do with this, I don't know. He could just be unhappy, a lot of people are unhappy."

There was no evidence, she said, that he'd been bullied at school or had a problem with specific people.

Biehn's father, Brant, who moved his family to the affluent area near Philadelphia in 1997 to work at pharmaceutical giant Merck, took the stand to say that he knew about the materials his son had ordered over the Internet and kept in his bedroom.

They were seized by police who searched the home before Biehn's arrest June 2.

His father said his son wanted magnesium thermite for science experiments but they ended up using it to try to burn a stump out of the backyard to make way for a fish pond.

Several kilograms of potassium nitrate, which were in a crawlspace in Biehn's closet, were intended to make smoke glitters, or smoke bombs, that were set off in the backyard "in a controlled environment," he said.

"My son told the officers that he was using it for smoke glitters. I was in his presence."

Defence attorney Bill Goldman argued there was no direct proof that Biehn wrote the bomb threat on the bathroom wall, no evidence of intent and that ignition tests by experts showed none of the materials he possessed actually burned.

"The proof doesn't match the allegations," he said. "Suspicion is not enough."

But Robert James, assistant district attorney, said "some one doesn't order 24 pounds of potassium nitrate to make smoke bombs" and pointed to testimony that Biehn told a schoolmate he uses it "to blow things up."

The prosecution's case never suggested that he possessed every single item needed to make an explosive, James added.

"If you possess those materials there's not much more you're going to do with them other than to build a bomb," he said outside court. "And we think that if you're going to build a bomb, you're going to use it somewhere."

James said he didn't know whether there would be any effort to deport Biehn, who was in trouble in 2001 for selling a homemade napalm substance to kids at school and shooting paint balls at cars earlier this year.

He was also suspended from school for a while for hacking into a computer.

The case has split opinion among those who see him as a menace and others who thought he was treated unfairly because of his nationality.

"Certainly since 9-11, people are very shaken and overly cautious, and to the detriment of our civil liberties," said Cathy Block, a composer who has worked with Travis at a community theatre group.

"Someone can point a finger and before you know it you're being stormtrooped and your child is being taken away," she said before the hearing began in juvenile court.

Others said Biehn was the unwitting victim of a zero-tolerance policy in schools after the Columbine tragedy.

"All this characterization about him hating Americans is very untrue," said resident Mai Pham, originally from Vietnam.

"I've talked to him about it. We joke," said Pham, who works for a Catholic parrish in adult education."I have a special feeling for Travis because I came from somewhere else. His comfort zone is back in Canada. It doesn't mean he wants to destroy here."

In court, a teacher's aide testified that Biehn told her on May 26 that someone had written a bomb threat in a boy's bathroom, although the prosecution contended it was the next day.

But the matter never reached the principal, Jospeh Jennelle, until June 2, after the Memorial Day weekend. The message had been wiped off by then.

Jennelle called police that day and offered a $250 reward for information leading to a conviction on writing the bomb threat.

Student Josh Collins, 16, testified he then informed Jennelle "for the safety of our school" that a week or two before, Biehn had shown him a personal website with pictures boxes containing white powder.

Biehn told him it was potassium nitrate, said Collins.

"He said he uses it to blow stuff up," the teen testified.

Another bomb threat appeared in a different bathroom at the school the day Biehn was arrested at home.

Prosecutors have written it off as a copycat hoax.

[Bulsajo]

I just skimmed those two articles but they appear to miss two key points that have been reported in other articles.

1. The kid was hauled away and hauled into court wearing an "I am Canadian" Molson beer t-shirt- the one that rants "I have a Prime Minister, NOT a President... etc.". An account I read said that prosecutors took a look at the shirt and said to the judge that it was proof of the boy's "anti-Amercian" attitude as well as being disrespectful attire for a court appearance even though the boy was not released (i.e. could not go home and change) before appearing before the judge.

2. Not only did the father make sparklers and other pyrotechnics, father and son were well known model rocket enthusiasts with launchings often taking place in front of crowds of neighbours. The postassium nitrate and fuses were for making solid fuel boosters.

I can't speak dfor accuracy of the above two issues, but I do wonder why neither articles that S-man has posted do not address these points, either to confirm or dismiss them.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I agree with Bulsajo. Both articles are weak and don't give enough in-depth facts for form an opinion on.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

So, in the words of the esteemed Hank Scorpio, "Shut up and be a good vassal state."

You all cheered.

Now you're worried about your image.

Free Travis.

[Derrek]

So where are your article links, guys? Are they Canadian articles? What about this quote taken from the 2nd article (the Canadian one). Could it be that the lady is referring to the articles you read?:

"All this characterization about him hating Americans is very untrue," said resident Mai Pham, originally from Vietnam.

"I've talked to him about it. We joke," said Pham, who works for a Catholic parrish in adult education."I have a special feeling for Travis because I came from somewhere else. His comfort zone is back in Canada. It doesn't mean he wants to destroy here."

[Bulsajo]

[Tiger Beer]

Not enough in there to make a decent assumption on the case.

But I would imagine that the Philsadelphia paper isn't aware of a Canadian anti-american sentiment in Canada whereas the Canadian paper is aware of it.

Meaning that a certain thing happened with the teenager.. the Philadelphia paper just sees it as another unruly teenager acting up and causing potential bomb threats and all the other stuff that goes along with it (not as some greater problem of anti-american canadian teenagers making political statements or whatever the Canadian paper is trying to project).

[Ya-ta Boy]

Any further up-dates on Travis' fate?

[Bulsajo]

No it doesn't seem to be hitting the radar of any news I've been reading/watching/listening to as of late.