Texas Teen Justin Carter Facebook Terroristic 'Joke' Gets him in Jail

By Laura Taylor

A Texas teen faces up to eight years in jail after making a comment on Facebook about shooting up a kindergarten.

Justin Carter, 19, charged with terroristic threat on Facebook, is on suicide watch after being jailed since March 27.

The teen's mother, Jennifer Carter, says her son was being sarcastic when he posted the message, "I think I’ma shoot up a kindergarten and watch the blood of innocent rain down and eat the beating heart of one of them."

Allegedly, someone responded to the post, writing, "you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head." Justin replied, "lol." and "jk"

Although "lol" is online speak for "laughing out loud" and "jk" means "just kidding," local police treated the teen's post as a terroristic threat.

A woman from Canada saw the facebook posting, she did a Google search and found Carter’s old address was near an elementary school. She then called the police.

Justin Carter was arrested the next month and has been jailed since March 27.

Carter is charged with making a terroristic threat — a felony. He's being held on a $500,000 bond while he waits for his case to come to trial. His family says they can’t afford to pay his bail.

In an online petition that has gained more than 40,000 supporters for Justin's freedom, Jennifer wrote:

"Justin's a good kid. He wouldn't hurt anyone, let alone a child. What happened is that he was in an argument on the League of Legends website, which continued on a Facebook page, and someone on Facebook called him crazy and messed up in the head.

So he responded in a sarcastic tone by saying something along the lines of 'Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts' which was followed by saying JK (just kidding) and LOL (laughing out loud). His response may have been in bad taste, but it was written in a non-threatening way that didn't translate well online."

Unfortunately, Justin's comments came only two months after Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut back in December of 2012.

An Austin, Texas, police spokesperson told Parentdish the department takes any threat made against schools seriously, especially after recent events.

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