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Another Disturbed Teen Does Not Open Fire on Maryland High School, No Deaths Reported
Lost in the daily torrent of data as mere local news, not worthy of national ballyhooing, was a story of a father’s tough love for his 18-year-old daughter. He found a journal and materials in her room and called the cops, who promptly and properly responded. The incident happened last March and the now 19-year-old woman was sentenced late last month to 20 years in prison.
Nicole Cevario, 19, was sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing explosive material with the intent to create a destructive device.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said Cevario’s father turned his daughter in after finding a detailed journal at home full of attack plans in March 2017.
As with the Washington case last week, this young adult had the sophistication to stay off social media, working out her plans in a pen-and-paper journal impervious to NSA or Silicon Valley detection.
When police searched Cevario’s home, they say they found the journal, a shotgun, ammunition, pipes and caps, shrapnel, fireworks, magnesium tape and fuse material.
According to the evidence, Cevario had planned to die if her attack was executed the way it was drawn up.
A father turned in his legally adult high-school daughter to save her life and the lives of her schoolmates. This was somehow unworthy of national comment then or now. Ten months later she was sentenced to spend longer in prison than her lifetime up to now. This must be heartbreaking for the father, and yet might there be some relief that the worst did not come to pass, nor will it in that family for at least decades?
So far, we know of two parents, with young adult children under their roofs plotting mass murder at schools, who exercised tough love and reported their loved ones to the police. How many more are out there, good deeds buried in local news? We should celebrate this Maryland father and this Washington grandmother as quiet heroes and role models — President Trump and the First Lady should honor them at a small White House reception this month.
Published in Domestic Policy
Kudos to both adults. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to turn in your own kids. It takes great courage and commitment to the larger society and to one’s own values to act. I am humbled by their need to do the right thing, knowing the terrible pain they will probably live with the rest of their lives. Thanks for sharing these two stories, @cliffordbrown.
I agree.
And I thought of something else that could happen: when citizens send up the red flags about a young person, as they did about the Florida shooter, it is quite possible that the law constrains law enforcement from doing anything about it until he actually commits a crime.
But nothing prevents them from hardening the target, right? That is, even if we don’t want (need?) armed people in every school in America, I’m sure there is an algorithm that either exists or could be discovered that would tell responding agencies what the likely target of a dangerous young man might be. Why not introduce armed officers (or allow skilled teachers or parents to bring their guns) into those schools pro tem?
I imagine the last thing they want is a public fete or indeed any public recognition.
Only hope their friends and family support them.
And Trump would just be inviting vicious comparison to Stalin and little Pavlik from the left and the Trumpophobe right, including one podcast right here at Ricochet sadly.
But might it not give courage to other parents and guardians struggling with similar situations? Better copy cat heroism than copy cat slaughter.
Kind of depends on the public response, doesn’t it?
Yes, for sure. However I’m pretty sure at least one person on the podcast you mention would give accolades to any parent with both the sense and backbone to act in such a fashion. I’m not sure about the other person, could go either way. I still listen to them but am getting pretty tired of the constant bashing just as I would get tired of any constant reiteration of any set of beliefs after a while. After so long, if I haven’t gotten the message, maybe the pundit should just give up and move on, it seems to me. I just can’t get over my insane belief that there may be more than one story happening in this incredible country.
I suspect that there are even more that do not involve the police, maybe that are caught at an earlier stage and the sent to private rehabilitation or a different environment and the kid responds by taking a different path from the destructive path he or she was on.
The “good” news for this family may be that their daughter is still on this earth, and there remains an opportunity for her to follow a different path when (or even before) her prison sentence is at an end.
Kate Braestrup Why not introduce armed officers (or allow skilled teachers or parents to bring their guns) into those schools protect them?
Our Cal governor Brown just signed a bill making it illegal for anyone to have a gun on school property. It seems that four school districts were going to allow there teachers with CC to bring guns. Our teachers union and lefty law makers would have none of that. To allow some to be armed seems to be the only practical solution, however this law lets the shooters have 15/20 min.in a gun free zone before police arrive.
Anybody selling bumper stickers saying, “Not my Governor!”?
Yes it would, and I know too much about the way media and social media works to say that there would be no negative consequences to the families. But I wonder if they don’t pale in comparison to what the families of killers have to go through in explaining why their child killed large numbers of people. That’s if they can explain at all, as they are often dead too.
Twenty years?
Her entire life to date?
For planning but not committing a crime?
Who has been harmed?
The mind reels. This is absurd.
True. It is just a very complicated picture. I think none of us are able to know what we would do. And saying that makes me think about the need for compassion.
I agree completely. I don’t think putting these poor families in the full glare of the media and social media spotlight is what I’m suggesting. But letting people know that there are examples where attacks are thwarted by the painful actions of a family member does make us feel less powerless, I think. I really respect stories on the news where we are both told of a tragedy and the family’s wish for privacy is respected.