[ROCKaMIC]

$1:

Friends of Canadian teen charged with bomb threat say he built rockets
04:30 PM EDT Jun 13
BETH GORHAM

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CP) - The trial of an alleged America-hating Canadian teen accused of plotting to blow up his school drew supporters to the courthouse Monday who called his treatment at the hands of authorities unjust.

Friends outside court in this Pennsylvania community on the first day of Travis Biehn's trial in juvenile court described him as an average teen who built and launched rockets with his father as a hobby.

"When they launch rockets, it's a neighborhood event," said Cathy Block, a composer who has worked with Travis at a community theatre group.

"Someone can point a finger and before you know it you're being stormtrooped and your child is being taken away," she said. "Certainly since 9-11, people are very shaken and overly cautious, and to the detriment of our civil liberties. I think he's been treated very unfairly."

Biehn, 17, was brought into court in handcuffs and leg irons and wearing a dress shirt and tie. He has been in custody in a juvenile facility since June 2.

Monday's proceeding is known as an adversary hearing, essentially a trial in juvenile court before judge alone. If Biehn is found guilty, he could be detained until he's 21. Other options include a sentence involving community service.

He was arrested after a bomb threat was scrawled in a school bathroom and police, tipped off by two other students about the teen's website, found some materials in his bedroom that could be used to make a bomb, including several kilograms of potassium nitrate.

Critics in the community lambasted the family and called for strict punishment for Biehn after District Attorney Diane Gibbons suggested about 10 days ago that the Grade 11 student dislikes Americans and would rather live in Canada as a motive for the alleged bomb plot.

She also noted that he wore an "I am Canadian" T-shirt to his first court appearance, something that played widely in local media organizations.

But others say he's an unwitting victim of the zero-tolerance policy in schools after the Columbine massacre and widespread fear of terrorism following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"All this characterization about him hating Americans is very untrue," said resident Mai Pham, originally from Vietnam.

"I've talked to him about it. We joke," said Pham, who works for a Catholic parrish in adult education. "I have a special feeling for Travis because I came from somewhere else. His comfort zone is back in Canada. It doesn't mean he wants to destroy here."

Biehn is charged with uttering terrorist threats and possessing incendiary devices.

In court, a teacher's aide testified that Biehn told her on May 27 someone had written a bomb threat in the bathroom, while another teacher said he was informed by a different student the next day.

But the matter never reached the principal, Jospeh Jennelle, until June 2, after the Memorial Day weekend, and the message had been wiped off by then.

Jennelle called police that day and offered a $250 reward for information leading to a conviction on writing the bomb threat.

Student Josh Collins, 16, testified he then informed Jennelle "for the safety of our school" that a week or two before, Biehn had shown him a personal website with pictures boxes containing white powder.

Biehn told him it was potassium nitrate, said Collins.

"He said he uses it to blow stuff up," the teen testified.

"He didn't say he blows up buildings?" asked defence attorney Bill Goldman.

"No," replied Collins.

Biehn's father, Brant, is a marketing director for pharmaceutical giant Merck. Born in Cornerbrook on Newfoundland's west coast, he worked in Halifax and Montreal before moving his family, including wife Annette and daughter Tristen, 15, to the U.S. in 1997.

He hasn't commented on the case for fear of angering Judge Kenneth Biehn (no relation).

Central issues include what proof, if any, prosecutors will offer that Biehn wrote the threat in the school bathroom, what witnesses may say about any verbal threats and his explanation for having so much potassium nitrate, which is legal to possess and was apparently purchased on the Internet.

Another bomb threat appeared in a different bathroom at the school the day Biehn was arrested at home.

Prosecutors have written it off as a copycat hoax but Goldman said on the weekend he's far from sure about that.

"I'm concerned there's still a nut out there and they're not pursuing it because they think they've got their guy. How do we know it's not the same person?"

Local newspapers have reported that Biehn was suspended a few months ago for hacking into a school computer and cited for disorderly conduct in 2001 for selling a homemade liquid "similar to napalm" to students for $2.

It was liquid styrofoam in a film cannister, said Goldman, adding that Biehn performed some community service.

"The police just chalked it up to a kid thing."

A Canadian consular official from Buffalo, Kimberly Lorentz, was scheduled to attend Monday's hearing.



© The Canadian Press, 2005

[Arctic_Menace]

That kid really scares me...................

[themasta]

I've thought of blowing up my school...but then again I've also thought of what it would be like to be a tree...doesn't mean I'm crazy...

[PrairieChick]

I have a Canadian Girls Kick Ass T-shirt that my husband bought me, and we like setting off fireworks, does that make us horrible people? Geez louise! Would be interested in seeing the outcome of this one, I really think the media went overboard with the first story, they made this kid out to be one cracker short of a picnic.

[JOHNNY1PROUDCANADIAN]

PrairieChick PrairieChick:

I have a Canadian Girls Kick Ass T-shirt that my husband bought me, and we like setting off fireworks, does that make us horrible people? Geez louise! Would be interested in seeing the outcome of this one, I really think the media went overboard with the first story, they made this kid out to be one cracker short of a picnic.

MMMM....say like foxs news ? They love to really spread hate and fear

[Proculation]

The guy was persecuted because he was proud to be canadian and wore canadian t shirts.
He just freaked out and send some pictures and menaces on the net and in the school.

Now he is pursued as a terrorist because he had some saltpeter in his closet.

Come one.
I've got saltpeter here and tried to make blackpowder and other things but never wanted to blow up something.

They must accuse him for having the equipment to make a bomb. And maybe menace. But not terrorism !

I think that's one case where the new laws are used in an incorrect way.

[PrairieChick]

You should go find the last thread on this topic, it got interesting, to say the least! LOL

[JOHNNY1PROUDCANADIAN]

I know fox news spreading the word across America , that we are teaching our kids to become anti-American and that dick believed it all

[harzer_knaller]

Isn't Fox a right winged (or republican) TV channel?

I read that they're just telling crap about hte rest of the world all the day long... And are many americans watching Fox?

But you should know what's going on in your country, not Fox!
And if the US americans really think that you train your kids to hate america then I think that they are really really paranoid!!!

I wonder, nobody tells our kids to hate america...

[canadian1971]

$1:

Born in Cornerbrook on Newfoundland's west coast

Woohoo...represent!

LOL.....we also had a student at G.C.Rowe junior high who brought an assault rifle to school! His name was Michael Jackson....kinda hard to forget that eh!

Good old Newfieland.....Producing Canada's best juvenial delinquents since 1949! Now we're moving on to the world market!



AND IT'S CORNER BROOK....TWO WORDS .... ya jackass reporter

[CubanTexan]

>>>>

[CubanTexan]

Ahh! I'm a Newbie, Just like when I arrived in Alberta back in 97'.

[CubanTexan]

JOHNNY1PROUDCANADIAN JOHNNY1PROUDCANADIAN:

I know fox news spreading the word across America , that we are teaching our kids to become anti-American and that dick believed it all

My Kid, born in Texas, arrived in Canada when she was one year old. Her indoctrination is subtle. Many Canadians are not aware of the subtle indoctrination that is going on in Canadian schools. I laughed at Tom Brodbeck(sp?) (Winnepeg columnist for the sun). When he had the audacity to tell me Cubans are better off under Castro than they ever were under Batista. I said, "Yes, they are better off...dead.

[ridenrain]

Slow news day since the run-away bride came back.
Funny that the "I am Canadian" shirt is the new Che Guevara symbol, instead of just advertisement for common beer.

[CubanTexan]

ridenrain ridenrain:

Slow news day since the run-away bride came back.
Funny that the "I am Canadian" shirt is the new Che Guevara symbol, instead of just advertisement for common beer.

To many of my people(cubans), Che was either a monster or a hero. Let's just say if I ever wore a 'Che' shirt to any of my family re-unions...I would be shot, by my own mother.