Kent State student arrested for alleged Twitter threat banned from campus

Authorities said 19-year-old Kent State University student William Koberna, seen above in an undated booking photo, is due in court to be arraigned Monday, July 30, 2012 after allegedly posting a message on Twitter saying he planned to "shoot up" the northeastern Ohio campus. / AP Photo/Kent State University Police

(AP) COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Kent State University student accused of posting a message on Twitter saying he planned to "shoot up" the northeastern Ohio campus has been instructed to stay away from the school and its president.

Nineteen-year-old William Koberna will be released Monday after posting part of a $50,000 bond set at Portage County Municipal Court. He will be required to wear a GPS tracking device and to stay away from university President Lester Lefton and the school.

Koberna was arrested Sunday at his parents' home in the Cleveland suburb of Brunswick. The sophomore has been charged with inducing panic, a felony, and aggravated menacing. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Friday.

University officials say Koberna posted a tweet July 25 that included the threat: "I'm shooting up your school ASAP."

[credibility2]

The inept "minds" of young people is scary. I hope this idiot is prosecuted and spends some hard time in jail. Sounds to me like another spoiled brat who didn't get proper upbringing and disciplining from his parents.

[xxxxxxxx9]

The definition of a twit is a silly or foolish person. Enough said.

[Verascity]

A threat to "shoot up" a campus should result in expulsion of the student. No other university should take him; send him home to his parents' basement.

There are plenty of young people who aren't so hung up on themselves that they feel they have the right to threaten others' lives. Give one of them his university spot.

[pcfogarty]

it is said that tougher penalties would prevent such things and I am guessing that an automatic death penalty for such threats may have some effect , but this is a a democracy , so to speak ,and not a police state therefore perpetrators must not be denied process in our judicial system . I am grateful for that , in spite of it's cost and failures . We are better off as a nation even with these aggravations .

[canislupus16]

"... this is a a democracy , so to speak ,and not a police state..."

pcfogarty, you're not paying attention. At many levels we have achieved elements of what would define "police state" - consider: unconstitutional, warrantless eavesdropping and searches authorized by Bush & Obama administrations, carried out by AT&T and Verizon and likely others [Congress passed a law expost facto granting immunity to Verizon and AT&T after those carried out under Bush]; heavy handed police tactics; illegal and botched police 9paramilitary style) raids. btw, see this link: www.cato.org/raidmap which reports on only a fraction of police raids gone wrong. Not a police state? How do you define it?

If the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution matter to you, you may want to re-think your assessment.

[brucesmall]

Actually, we are a Republic, per the Constition: Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government. Also, remember the Pledge of Allegiance: ...and to the republic for which it stands.

[WakeUpPeople001]

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

[matt6052]

"shoot up" Kent State? It's already been done. April 1970, National Guardsmen opened fire and killed four student protesters.