Cyber threat targets Fil-Am boy in Queens; father raises questions

On his Google.doc homework, a 12-year-old Filipino student in PS102Q in Elmhurst received the following message: “Hey go to sleep so I can go to your house and kill you…”
Shaken, the boy shared the message with his teachers and parents. In the days that followed, he has been unresponsive in class and has not been raising his hands to participate in classroom discussions. Which is unusual for a boy who has consistently remained in his school’s top class program, said his father.
The school and the NYPD are currently investigating.
“My son appears to be a victim of cyber threat,” said the boy’s father who spoke to The FilAm with the request that his family’s name remain private. “He’s OK now.”
The father is based in California where he works for the comic book industry. The mother is in New York with their children and works in a bookstore chain.
The father described the alleged bullying incident, which is the subject of an ongoing dialogue among school officials, parents of PS 102Q students, and the NYPD.
On October 20, the boy received the threatening note on his Google.doc homework. It said: “Hey go to sleep so I can go to your house and kill you so I can take the spotlight tomorrow in class good by.” Only members of the class and the teacher can access Google.doc, the protocol that makes it easy to share homework for students working in groups.
The boy was terrified at first, but appears to be returning to normalcy. According to the father, when asked how he’s doing, the boy told his ELA (English Language Arts) teacher, ‘I’m ok but kinda afraid because I know somebody is watching.’
The NYPD, according to the father dismissed the incident as “idle threat,” which indicates no immediate danger to the people targeted in the message, which includes the boy, four other classmates and two teachers.
They have identified a suspect, a young boy of about the same age who comes from a South Asian country and who has been described as “having no friends.”
The father is sharing the story hoping it will “shine some light” on what protocols are in place to help other parents in case a cyber threat is made on their children.
“I am sure this has happened at other schools, so there should by now already be a manual developed,” he said. “As far as we know, the Principal and other PS102Q officials have been interviewing students. As for the NYPD, other than showing up at the school and class the day after and requesting subpoenas for Edmodo and Google, we really do not know what exactly is being done to figure out the identity of (the suspect).”
He said the NYPD has talked to the class, and Principal William Ko has been authorized to start asking students for information. Superintendent Madeline Chan has made a visit to PS102 to talk to Grade 7 class 7-403 about the threat. Borough Safety Director Maurice Lindsey will be visiting on Wednesday, November 9, to speak with parents and address the issue of cyber threat among teens.
“Principal Ko, Superintendent Chan and Detective Kelly have spoken to me directly as well,” he added. “Ko and Chan mentioned that the situation has been escalated to the highest level.”
At the end of the day, he said, parents are there “to protect our children.”  —The FilAm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more