Plea deal for Internet threats to shoot McIntosh students: Banned from school, no Internet or email use, 6 p.m. curfew after 30 days house arrest, but no extra jail time beyond 12 days

Two girls, ages 15 and 16, who admitted Friday to making threats on the Internet to shoot up McIntosh High School did not get any extra jail time beyond the 12 days they have already served, The Citizen has learned.

However, the girls will serve 30 days on house arrest and they will not be allowed to access the Internet or email during the entire time they’re on probation, among other restrictions imposed by the court, The Citizen has confirmed.

Although the threat was serious, police found no weapons that could be connected to either girl that might indicate such a plan was imminent at the time of their arrest.

District Attorney Scott Ballard said he could only talk about the outcome on one of the girls because the other’s case is not open to the public. That is because the latter had not yet been ruled delinquent in a previous case, The Citizen has been told.

The other girl, however, had previously been adjudicated delinquent and so a portion of her plea hearing Friday afternoon was open to the public. The Citizen is declining to name both girls because they are juveniles.

The Citizen has confirmed through other official sources that both girls will serve the same sentence.

In addition to the 30 days of house arrest, both girls will have to serve 50 hours of community service, may not set foot on the grounds of any public school without the court’s permission, and they cannot attend any extracurricular activities at McIntosh.

Also both girls have a 6 p.m. curfew unless they are with their parents and must follow the recommendations of their psychologists, and pay a $200 probation fee, according to the court ruling.

The girls’ parents were also issued an order by the court to immediately report any violation of the probation conditions. If they fail to do so and are caught, the parents could be cited for contempt of court.

One of the girls, on her own, wrote a letter of apology that will be shared with students at McIntosh per the court’s order, her attorneys said. The other has been ordered to pen an apology letter, and she also must stay away from a specific list of juveniles which the court has deemed to be bad influences on her, Ballard said.

Ballard’s office was unable to prosecute either of the teens as an adult because the offense of making terroristic threats, while a felony, is not considered one of the “seven deadly sins” that allow teens to be tried as adults.

The girls will remain on probation for an indefinite period of time and can only be taken off probation by the court; in no case can the probation last beyond two years according to Georgia law.

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