Child Endangerment?

A 12-yr-old individual has been identified—and the individual has confessed—as the one making seven bomb threats at public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland. Under Maryland law, the child is immune to prosecution for this particular crime—he’s not 13 years old or older.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones added this tidbit:

It is disheartening to accept that the individual responsible for disrupting the educational process and instilling fear in our community was well aware of the legal limitations surrounding their age. They understood that they could not be charged under current Maryland statutes[.]

But maybe the child’s parents can be charged. Surely the child’s behavior is dispositive concerning the parents’ negligent (if not negligible) parenting. Surely the child’s behavior is prima facie evidence of the parents’ contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and through that in the present case, child endangerment.

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