3rd boy pleads guilty to conspiracy in threat against Albion school
ALBION – A third boy in an alleged plot against the Albion Middle School pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the sixth degree in Orleans County Family Court on Tuesday.
His guilty plea came a week after two other boys pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the second degree. One of those boys also pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment for sending a “disturbing image” to a female classmate, said Joe Cardone, the district attorney.
The three were charged on Nov. 7 after an alleged plot to bring weapons to the middle school and harm classmates.
The boys will be sentenced next month by Judge Sanford Church. There are no sentencing promises as part of the plea agreements. The judge could decide the boys need to be detained at a juvenile detention facility, or he could give them a lesser punishment of perhaps probation.
The boys are currently not allowed back in school. They are being tutored off site.
Because the three boys are all juveniles age 13 their names aren’t to be publicized by the media.
Cardone said the boys remain suspended from school and are under adult supervision. They also need to continue their mental health appointments, and are not to communicate with each other or use electronic media devices.
The students allegedly used Discord, a social media platform for gamers, to make grave physical threats to at least one other student. The threats spread to other social media platforms as the threads were shared, Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni said during a Nov. 8 press conference.
The school district this evening will host a social media and safe networking program for parents and community. That session begins at 7 p.m. in the Middle School Auditorium.
New York State Trooper John Campanella will be the guest speaker. He is the Troop A (Batavia) School and Community Outreach Coordinator and a former School Resource Officer.
He will discuss various social media sites often used by teens; how businesses target teens through social media; how metadata and geo coding are used and misused; and will discuss the legalities and consequences of sexting and cyber bullying.
(Editor’s Note: This article was updated from an earlier version that said the third boy pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the sixth degree, which is a misdemeanor.)
