Boys’ E-Mail Draws Secret Service Attention

Two 14-year-old boys were suspended from South Albany High School after they sent President Clinton a threatening message via electronic mail while exploring the Internet on a school computer.

“One of the kids typed a letter to the president that had seemingly threatening words in it and hit the send button not thinking it would be sent,” John DeBoie, principal at South Albany, said Wednesday.

DeBoie said the White House received and “red-flagged” the message because it contained critical words.

Another student told the Democrat-Herald that the message contained the words “bomb” and “sniper.”

The message was turned over to Secret Service agents in Portland, who traced it through its Internet address to the students’ account.

“The address wasn’t something you could hide,” DeBoie said. “They called us up to talk to the boys, but I think once they found out the two boys were 14, they put it in the proper perspective.”

The boys were suspended from school for two days and their Internet account was canceled after they sent the anonymous message Friday.

“We have strict guidelines for using the Internet, and mailing hate mail to the president of the United States certainly breaks them,” said Bill Dixon, community relations specialist for the school district.

The high school declined to release the names of the students involved.

Internet was installed at the school March 13.