A teenager who threatened to run into his high school with a knife and “massacre every child” he passed has been spared a custodial sentence.
Andrew Ferguson, 17, of Mariner Street, Camelon, Falkirk, made the chilling threat in a fit of anger after a crisis meeting with teachers about his academic future.
He also posted disturbing online messages about teachers at the school, St Mungo’s High in Falkirk.
One tweet said he hoped the family of the Roman Catholic school’s deputy headmaster, James Murphy, would die in a “brutal bloody massacre”.
Ferguson, pleaded guilty to using threatening and abusive behaviour.
He tweeted: “If I become homeless I can see myself running into St Mungo’s with a blade and massacring every child I pass.”
Another of his tweets targeted Mr Murphy and read: “I genuinely hope all his family die in a brutal bloody massacre.”
Sheriff William Gallacher said the posts were “horrific” because they “could not be divorced” in people’s minds from real-life school massacres and must have caused concern at the time that the threats were real.
He sentenced Ferguson to 240 hours of unpaid work and a year of supervision.
Graham McLachan, prosecuting, told Falkirk Sheriff Court that Ferguson sent the tweets on June 5 last year following a meeting that he and his mother had with teachers about him moving from S5 to S6.
“He seemed to have been annoyed by something that had taken place at the meeting earlier that day, “ he said.
Solicitor-advocate Martin Morrow, defending, said Ferguson came from a good family and had passed through school without incident until he “went off the rails” in S5.
Sheriff Gallacher said he did not accept Ferguson did not know his tweets would be widely read. He told Ferguson: “You have brought disgrace on yourself and you have affected your family to an extent that is utterly unacceptable.”