School gun threats must be punished

COWARDS who terrorise Gold Coast school students from behind their keyboards should be treated as though they marched on to campuses to make the threats, according to local politicians.

Schools including A.B. Paterson College and Elanora State High School have been forced into lockdowns in recent weeks as a result of threatening online messages.

Following two menacing posts from the same Facebook page directed at Upper Coomera State College yesterday Gold Coast LNP frontbencher David Crisafulli called for authorities to clamp down on offenders.

“The penalties for an offence like this should be exactly the same as if the threat was made in person,” Mr Crisafulli said of social media posts which shut down the college of more than 2000 students twice in one day.

“Think about those parents, what they had to go through, think about the teachers who had to go through this all because of some keyboard warrior who has condemned these people to terror.”

The Opposition MP called on the Government to “step up to the plate”.

“If you asked any fair-minded parent if they believed there should be repercussions for what occurred today I would suggest the overwhelming majority would say yes,” he said.

“As politicians we need to reflect the views of the overwhelming majority.

“We need to deal with a new era of people using keyboards to attack people and if that means tougher laws then Government needs to react.”

Coomera MP Michael Crandon said the threats stretched a police force already “hanging on by the skin of their teeth”.

Last week the Bulletin revealed Coomera officers are struggling to service an average of 44 calls each per month, almost double the calls for service of other divisions on the Gold Coast.

“We are really up against it with police resources and the types of police resources that would have to be put into something like this,” Mr Crandon said.

“It’s drawing our police resources away from what they should be doing.

“It’s very disappointing on that level.

“What are the consequences for this sort of thing? Do young people need to be made an example of? Or should we instead get some sort of campaign going outlining the irresponsible nature of it and what the risks are?”

Queensland Law Society deputy president Bill Potts said offenders could be charged with public nuisance, using a carriage service to harass or threatening harm.

He said police would have fast access to threats and were reluctant to release information about the incidents due to concerns about copycat behaviour.

“One of the concerns they have is because of the real fear of copycats,” Mr Potts said.

“That’s why the police always act cautiously. It’s a bit like the boy who cried wolf because if you cry so many times people actually stop coming but it the wolf does arrive no one comes and that’s the time when the wolf eats everybody.

“It’s a bit like bullies, if you react to a bully, if you cry in pain, rather than being frightened the bully is encouraged.”

While police were quiet about the threats, Mr Potts said perpetrators were often charged.

“People are charged, because of the massive disruption in terms of time and money and there’s also that fear factor and custodial sentences can occur but with kids, generally there’s something going wrong so they try and look at the causes rather than the result,” Mr Potts said.