Teen held in long-running LA school threat

Published: April 29, 2008 at 2:19 PM

LOS ANGELES, April 29 (UPI) -- Los Angeles authorities are holding a teenager for psychiatric evaluation after he allegedly posted threatening messages on the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.

The unidentified Wilson High School student was arrested this month for allegedly writing violent threats against specific Asian students at the school and inserting them in the school's Wikipedia page.

The Los Angeles Times said the threats were online for more than a year; however they did not come to the attention of authorities until two weeks ago when a Wikipedia technician came upon a threat of a campus shooting that would target Asian immigrants in general and the Wilson badminton team specifically.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department assigned 13 detectives to the case and classes were canceled on April 18, the day the threat was to be carried out.

School officials told the Times that they routinely monitor online socializing sites such as FaceBook and Myspace for threat but Wikipedia is generally used for research and not monitored.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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