Tobin Kerns arriving for his sentencing Tuesday in Plymouth. He received 10 months for the school plot.
(Globe Staff Photo/Wendy Maeda)
region
As Tobin Kerns, sentenced Tuesday of plotting a massacre at Marshfield High School, began his jail term last week, news of his sentencing drew mixed reaction.
Kerns's relatives and friends said they were shocked and disappointed by the judge's decision to sentence him as an adult. But they also expressed relief that the sentence was not longer, as it could have been.
"It's just really sad," said Kerns's aunt, Marsha Chez. She worried, she said, about the safety of her 19-year-old nephew doing time with adult convicts in the Plymouth County Correctional Facility.
Others said Kerns deserved to do hard time to send a message to students about the seriousness of such deadly plans, even if they were not likely to act on them.
Authorities have said Kerns and three other former students conspired to bring explosives to the school, padlock the doors, and kill students and staff at Marshfield High in April 2005.
Kerns on Tuesday received a 10-month adult jail sentence for his role in the conspiracy, and credit for the five months he has already spent in the juvenile lockup. Prosecutors had suggested a 2 1/2 year sentence; the maximum penalty for the charges is 40 years.
As news of Kerns's sentencing spread, officials in Hingham were grappling with their own threats of violence. An ominous note found on a desk at Hingham High School listed the names of seven students who were targeted as potential victims.
On Tuesday evening, Hingham police and school administrators met with the parents of the students named. Hingham police are charging the alleged author of the note - a 15-year-old freshman - with one count of threatening to commit a crime. That student's name was not released last week.
The issue of high school violence, and debate over Kerns's sentence, were aired last week in cyberspace. Facebook.com, a popular social networking website, has two groups devoted to the case. One group, "Toby Kerns is innocent!" has over 120 members, and another group, "Toby Kerns Is Guilty - Have You Forgotten About Their Plot To Kill Our Peers?" has 80 members.
Across the country, there have been dozens of incidents of students' plotting Columbine-style violence against their classmates, including at least four threats in Southeastern Massachusetts since 2001, and two this fall. Such threats are not common, but they are part of a disturbing pattern that has emerged in recent years, according to Thomas Cottle, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at Boston University's School of Education.
"This phenomenon is relatively new," he said. "There have always been bullies. Terrorism, for America, is relatively new. . . . That someone can come in and do such horrendous damage; . . . it's a new mentality."
"There is a pattern of affluent, disaffected, alienated white boys who are finding new pathways to gratify their urges," he said.
As for the sentence, said Cottle, "I certainly would hope that the five months in jail does not mark the end of this experience," he said.
"Jail isn't set up to be like summer camp. It's not like we expect our kids to go to high school, then to jail, and then on to college." When Kerns is released, Cottle said, "I would hope . . . this guy is watched and helped," he said. "I hope his family will be part and parcel of his return to society."
Chez was the only relative of Kerns's present at the sentencing hearing. His father, who now lives in Seattle, planned to be there, but could not make it after the hearing was rescheduled. Chez said she was concerned about Kerns's health and worried about his safety. Kerns has lost about 40 pounds in recent months.
Denise Lunn, the mother of Kerns's girlfriend, was disappointed that Kerns was sentenced as an adult. She criticized the way the case was handled by the Marshfield police and the district attorney's office.
"There should have been more of an investigation," she said. "There are way too many unanswered questions for me, as a citizen."
"This is wrong," she said. "I feel like almost a surrogate mother to him," she said. "I grew to love him. I saw him grow into an incredible young man. In the summer of 2004 we had so many conversations about him changing his life and moving on and so happy about going into his junior year. He had goals and dreams and that all turned into a nightmare."
Kerns's problem, she said, stemmed from falling in with a bad crowd that later turned on him.
An alleged coconspirator, Joseph Nee, is free on bail and faces a Jan. 30 trial. Two other boys were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.
At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Judge Louis D. Coffin explained his reasoning for the sentence, and described the impact the case had on the community.
"Because of this whole incident, the schools implemented a number of new procedures," said Coffin. "They adopted a safe schools initiative to address bullying and hazing. They had to update and upgrade their telephone communication system so that anxious parents could be promptly informed of events that happen at the school; each school now requires visitors to check in and identify themselves; video cameras have been installed; and students can no longer allowed to wear hats or hoods so that people can be identified once they're in the schools."
Coffin also said the court received a victim statement from the mother of one student who was a possible victim.
"It describes in graphic detail, wondering if someone was going to come by the house at night, worried about whether they would be victimized at school, the effect it would have on grades and students' activities," he said. "The impact on the community cannot be undervalued in this case."
Coffin said the presentencing investigation depicts a "complicated" situation, and a "troubled young man."
Cottle, the professor, said he hopes that Kerns's sentence includes mental health treatment and counseling, and that he gets guidance and support after his release.
"A tragedy was averted," he said. "It is also still a tragedy because you don't want to see a young life altered so soon. The story is not over."
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
