Make violent plots felony, sheriff says

Three days after police found handwritten papers depicting graphic sex and violence in the locker of a high school student, Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds is calling for a law to make the offense an adult-level felony — even if the perpetrator is just 15 years old.

A locker search for suspected drugs revealed hundreds of pages of prose and pictures illustrating an overthrow of the government, the rape and killing of specific school administrators and students, as well as acts of gun violence. Two 15-year-old Kamas boys were arrested and have been suspended from the school. A subsequent search of the students' homes recovered some drugs and drug paraphernalia and some knives, but no firearms, Edmunds said.

Criminal charges are still pending. Edmunds has not yet screened the case with prosecutors, but it appears unlikely the case will leave the juvenile-level of the criminal justice system, he said.

That just doesn't seem tough enough, the sheriff said.

"When you've got the amount of evidence that we have, clearly this is not some fleeting thought. These kids are obsessing, whether or not they have the means to carry it out," he said. "What I would like to see is a law saying if you are going to possess any kind of violent writings or depictions of this nature in a school that it's a felony.

"I'm calling for the Utah Legislature to look at this and do something."

Edmunds said he'll also seek support for the idea from the Utah Sheriff's Association, which has a lobbying arm and often works with lawmakers to fix existing statutes or create new laws.

School shootings across the country may have made law enforcement hypersensitive to the issue, but it can't be ignored, Edmunds said.

"We've got to be proactive because it's so dangerous," he said. "My gosh, what's the alternative?"

But Carol Lear, coordinator for law and legislation for the state Office of Education, doesn't think any new laws are needed.

For example, the law allows for diminished on-campus First Amendment rights prohibiting the presence of the kind of materials found in Kamas Wednesday. It gives school officials the right to make locker searches and automatically suspend a student who poses a potential threat.