A 13-year-old accused of planning a mass shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Canton, Ohio, has reportedly received a sentence that includes writing a book report on a man who saved many Jews during World War II.
Court records say the boy allegedly wanted to target the Temple Israel, WKYC reported Monday:
On Friday, the teen pleaded “true,” the juvenile equivalent of guilty, to the misdemeanor counts of inducing panic and disorderly conduct. Stark County Family Court Judge Jim James suspended a 90-day sentence for the teen at the Multi-County Juvenile Attention Center, giving him a year of probation with the following conditions:
- No unsupervised use of the internet
- Continue to undergo counseling with a licensed therapist
- Read a book about Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz, credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during World War II. The teen is then ordered to write a book report to the juvenile probation department.
A CBC News report from 2018 said, “Sometimes referred to as the Swiss Schindler, Carl Lutz’s efforts to save Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust aren’t well-known, despite him being credited with the largest civilian rescue of Jewish people during the Second World War.”
Per the WKYC report, officials with the Stark County Sheriff’s Office said deputies went to a home in Plain Township in early September to investigate a report about a young teenager who was allegedly having “concerning conversations” online.
The boy reportedly “made detailed threats on Discord, a messaging platform popular among gamers,” according to ABC News.
Some of the threats were allegedly made toward the Temple Israel in Canton.
According to an NBC News report from December 14, Temple Israel “was the latest institution threatened with a mass shooting”:
The boy’s family described him as a “good, smart kid” who attended church on Sundays. However, the relatives said he had been influenced by men on the Discord platform.
Breitbart News has extensively covered the problem of threats of violence and violent acts against synagogues and Jewish people.