How embarrassing. Just days after Mayor Jimmy Weekley used a City Commission meeting as a forum to publicly bash what he called those "supermarket tabloids" for emphasizing sensational news, there it was. That big, black, bold headline, on Sunday morning for all to see, right on page one— the lead story in none other than the venerable Key West Citizen: "Mayor's Son— `I'll Shoot Up the High School.'"
Wow! How's that for a headline to juice up Sunday morning!? We can hardly wait for the next Commission meeting to see if the Mayor will go hysterical again, publicly tongue-lash the Citizen and call for an advertiser boycott. That's what he did at the end of the last meeting— although it was never really clear exactly what newspapers he was blathering about.
We guess it wasn't the local gay newspaper. In the last issue of Celebrate, he posed for a photo holding up a copy of that paper and was quoted saying how much he enjoyed reading it.
In case you missed the Citizen story last Sunday, here's what happened, according to the police reports.
Thursday evening last week, Feb. 17, about 7, Dakin Weekley, 21, boarded a City bus at Searstown. He put 25 cents in the meter, according to bus driver Robert Roberts.
"I told him that the fare was a little more than that," Roberts said.
Weekley reportedly told the driver that he had bills but that he didn't want to spend them.
"I opened the doors and told him to get off," Roberts wrote in his statement to the police. "Then he put a dollar in the meter— and started to say things like, `You're messing with a student, the future of our country, but that's okay, I will just shoot up the high school!'"
Roberts called the cops, reporting that he had an irate passenger on his bus threatening to "shoot up" the high school. Apparently, the threat was considered serious enough to attract four officers to the scene.
According to the police report, Weekley was handcuffed "for officer safety." His backpack was searched. No weapons were found.
Weekley admitted to the officers that he had made the threat.
"The bus driver pissed me off," he said, according to the official report.
But then, somewhere about right then, the officers learned who the kid was. Oh, God! Whatta we do now? We've got the Mayor's son handcuffed, for God's sake!
The police report ends abruptly:
"Mr. Weekley did not appear to be mentally unstable or a danger to himself or others. Mr. Weekley was unhandcuffed and given a courtesy transport to his residence"— the Mayor's house.
Well, isn't that special? Does anybody reading this think for a minute that had the young man's last name been anything but Weekley that he would have been unhandcuffed and chauffeured home? Somebody else may have gotten a ride in a police car all right, but it would have been headed the other direction— out to the jail on Stock Island.
Capt. Bill Fortune told us that he had, after the fact, checked with the wusseys (our term, not his) over at the State Attorney's Office and was told (surprise, surprise!) that Weekley hadn't broken any laws. Gee. How about assault? The driver took Weekley's threat seriously enough to call the cops. And when the officers (all four of them) got there, they were, apparently, concerned enough to handcuff the boy for "officer safety."
We think that young Mr. Weekley is very fortunate that Lt. Al Flowers didn't show up on the scene. He jails neighborhood residents for trying to feed the cats in Bayview Park after dark! What do you think he would have done to a loudmouth kid threatening to "shoot up the high school"!? You really don't want to think about it. It wouldn't have been pretty.
An interesting facet of this story is that it was quickly picked up by the Associated Press and received extensive coverage nationwide— especially out West where the Colombine "shoot up" is still fresh in people's minds.
Young Weekley is reportedly a student at Florida Keys Community College. He hasn't been a student at Key West High School for a couple of years. Why, then, when angered, would he even think about shooting up the high school? Why would such a thing even come to mind?
Terry Deischer, the Safety & Crisis Management Specialist for Monroe County Schools, told Key West The Newspaper this week that he's concerned.
"I plan on getting a copy of that police report," he said.
"Dakin Weekley is not a student in the school system, of course, but I can tell you this: When we do hear about threats like this from one of our students, we definitely don't brush it off," Deischer said. "We investigate and there is almost always some disciplinary action taken. That action could include psychological evaluation, suspension or even legal action.
"The level of the discipline depends on the circumstances."
So what's the message here? There are probably two messages:
1. If your son threatens to shoot up a school and he's a student in the Monroe County Schools, he's probably in serious trouble.
2. But if he's not in the school system, you probably have nothing to worry about. The cops will give him a ride home. If they don't, that would be selective law enforcement, wouldn't it?