If you child / juvenile has been charged with a crime in Fort Collins or Larimer County, it’s imperative that you get an experienced Juvenile Criminal Defense Attorney on your side immediately. While juvenile criminal cases are usually more focused more on rehabilitation and treatment than punishment, you don’t want to advise your child to make a decision that could negatively affect them for the rest of their life. Especially, if the criminal charge results from a misunderstanding. That’s the debacle an 11-year-old is currently facing after a teacher misunderstood a student’s intention when repeating a meme. According to the report, the student quoted the first part of the meme, “My main goal is to blow up” and the teacher interrupted before he could finish. The rest of the quote is “and act like I don’t know nobody.” It is a quote from a rapper that he saw on TikTok. The student explained the meme and how it’s about becoming popular, but the teacher wouldn’t listen and sent the student to the office for making threats. The student was suspended from school and later police arrived at his house to arrest him. If this situation had occurred in Colorado, the student would have been facing charges for Interference with Staff, Faculty, or Students of Educational Institutions.
What is Interference with Staff, Faculty, or Students of Educational Institutions in Larimer County?
The Larimer County, Colorado law definition of Interference with Staff, Faculty or Students of Educational Institutions – C.R.S. 18-9-109(6) – as it relates to threats, is:
(I) A person the actor knows or believes to be a student, school official, or employee of an educational institution; or
(II) An invitee who is on the premises of an educational institution.
An important definition in this statute is ‘credible threat.’ According to Colorado law, ‘credible threat’ is defined as:
Apparently, simply using the term ‘blow up’ was enough to be considered a credible threat in this matter.
Loveland Penalty for Meme Interference with Staff, Faculty, or Students of Educational Institutions
In Loveland and Fort Collins, Interference with Staff, Faculty, or Students of Educational Institutions is a class 1 misdemeanor. For an adult, a class 1 misdemeanor is punishable by up to 364 days in the Larimer County Jail. For a juvenile, the penalty will likely look much different. Hopefully in this case, the parties involved see this meme misunderstanding for what it is and the case is dismissed.