Threatening e-mail

Ten years ago, threatening messages were handled the same way ther were fifty years ago: the teacher and the principal studied the message, compared the handwriting to various samples, and, often found the culprit without a problem.

If the sender of the message wanted to get sophisticated, he or she could gain an added level of anonymity by typing the message. The principal and the teacher then compared the typed letters to the typing found on reports and term papers, looking for the errant "e" or "p" or "r" to narrow the list of suspects. Again, frequently he or she was caught.

But today e-mail presents a new problem. By the end of 1999 there were over 570,000,000 e-mail addresses in the world. Amazingly, 334,000,000 were in the United States alone! It's obvious that e-mail users tend to have more than one e-mail box, and therefore, more than one e-mail "identity." In fact, the anonymity of the internet permits users to "be anyone or anything they want to be, without fear of being discovered." This freedom has helped to encourage some of the more sinister sides of internet users. In 1999 over 132,000,000,000 e-mail messages were sent and received in the Untied States. How many of these were threats is anyone's guess. Too many.

What should you do when you or a staff member receives an e-mail threat? First and foremost, don't delete the e-mail! Inform the person who manages your computers and/or computer network that all e-mail on the servers must remain intact and unchanged.

If you believe staff or students to be in danger, involve the police. More and more polie deparments are becoming better equipped to deal with e-mail threats. Work hand-in-hand with them in any decision to either evacuate your building or provide protection for a staff member.

If you see the e-mail as more of a nuisance than a threat (for example, a derogatory comment about staff or school) and you want to handle the situation in-house, there are a couple of sleuthing techniques that your or your computer specialst can use to figure out who sent the message.

The best way to prevent e-mail threats is to let students know that you catch the senders. Once very valuable piece of information that may help help either the police or your computer person discover who sent an offending message is the identity of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) used by the student or his/her family. Some schools routinely record this along with other information about incoming students (name, birthdate, phone number, address, ISP, etc.). Work with your computer person on this. You might provide a simple checklist (viz. AOL, Earthlink, Juno, MSN, etc.). One day this ISP data may be the key to unveiling a particularly nasty "anonymous" e-mail.

Above all, be vigilant. Don't ignore e-mail threats. If you catch the sender you should carefully weigh your options for his/her consequences. with serious cases, don't hesitate to work closely with the police. With in-house cases, you might consider using a Middle School Disrespect Behavior Packet or a High School Disrespect Detention Packet as a part of student remdiation.