Michael Schmitt woke up in his mom's condo on February 24 full of inspiration to freestyle a scream rap that he later posted online. That afternoon, JCHS went on lockdown. A student saw Schmitt's tweet and noted that his profile photo on the music streaming site SoundCloud showed him pointing a handgun at the camera. The alarmed student thought Schmitt's track sounded violent and told her mom, who alerted a teacher, according to police reports. School administrators called police in West Caldwell, New Jersey, around 1 p. Fourteen weeks later, the 18-year-old is under house arrest, facing a potential trial over a rap song that police and school officials, haunted by a slew of campus shootings around the country, took as a serious threat, but that Schmitt says was a parody. But the school principal, Jim Devlin, says police did the right thing. Schmitt's arrest was 10 days after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. During that time, journalists had uncovered numerous warning signs about Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who faces 17 counts of premeditated murder. Trying to show it was taking every threat seriously, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office held a press conference on February 28 to announce it was charging for allegedly making threats to schools. The final one was Schmitt's rap song. The case raises questions about how administrators and cops determine what counts as a threat and what's a form of free expression, albeit a highly derogatory one. And it has the potential to put Schmitt away for years over what boils down to a profile photo and a short rap song made by a kid in suburban New Jersey. At that point it's not my job to say, Is it credible? We have to protect our students and families. A half hour into the search, Schmitt's mom called the cops to ask why they were looking for her son, and said she would quickly bring Schmitt to police headquarters. The school canceled the concert and evacuated the building. It wasn't a false alarm. It was what needed to be done to make sure the school was safe. Schmitt had been suspended from JCHS for at least 10 incidents since 2016, from cutting class to spitting on a classmate, school records show. Once, he was suspended for testing positive for THC, the active chemical in marijuana. Schmitt started a homeschooling program in October. In recent months, more commentators have suggested people take expressions of violence against women seriously as a possible precursor to shootings. Students in Parkland had Cruz to school officials for threatening classmates after one of them began dating his ex-girlfriend, whom Cruz was allegedly toward. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the boy charged in last month's shooting that killed 10 at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, allegedly shot and killed a girl who had his advances. Statistically, most mass shootings intimate partner violence, and nearly all school shooters , a fact that has received attention since Elliot Rodger's rampage in 2014. Rodger shot and killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara, after posting a lengthy manifesto about how he was unfairly still a virgin and had been rejected by women. In 2015, the court the conviction of Anthony Elonis, a Pennsylvania man who spent nearly four years in prison for making threats on Facebook against former coworkers, his ex-wife, an FBI agent, and an elementary school. Elonis argued they were Eminem-inspired rap lyrics he used to cope with getting fired from his job, where he was accused of harassment, and losing his wife, who had obtained an order of protection against him. Elonis was also for hitting his girlfriend's mom in the head with a pot a month before the high court's ruling. Domestic violence victims' advocates that courts needed to take intimidation disguised as lyrics seriously because abusers were finding more sophisticated ways online to threaten from afar. Civil liberties groups courts needed to determine what is a real threat, and what's free expression protected by the First Amendment. Ultimately, the high court chose a narrow middle ground on a technicality. In New Jersey, a 2014 state Supreme Court bars prosecutors from charging someone solely because they talked about violent acts in a rap song, unless there is a strong connection to another offense. Since the Parkland shooting, Essex County has dealt with 24 incidents of possible threats to schools, many posted online, Giordano said, though not all resulted in charges. The counselor said Schmitt was getting psychiatric treatment, Mazzeo wrote in a report, and that Schmitt had expressed anger toward the school in the past. It's nestled in one of the Republican-leaning pockets of New Jersey, 25 miles away from New York City. West Caldwell's median household income is three times higher than that of Newark and Paterson, New Jersey, the two closest cities. It's difficult to find a house or yard in disrepair, and many are enclosed by shiny white fences. Schmitt has lived there his whole life and said he began rapping in fifth grade. Sometimes he freestyled with his grandma, whom he and his mom lived with for a few years. In high school, he learned how to mix and record his own tracks. Music's role in inciting violence has been a subject of contention for years. In the 1980s, amid fears of rising juvenile crime, parents groups demanded warnings on albums they said were too violent and vulgar for kids. After the Columbine school shooting in 1999, Marilyn Manson was famously scapegoated as inspiration for the two shooters. In the , blaming music for violence has remained a constant in the. But it's only been recently that anyone could record and immediately, and widely, distribute their own music for free. Erik Nielson, who often serves as an expert witness in criminal trials involving rap music, said officials bring charges in these cases by playing off of fears and biases about hip-hop. However, it appears rap music is the only genre that gets treated by police as nonfiction, Nielson continued. A grand jury seemingly agreed, and to indict Ross in March. Schmitt's lawyer is hopeful the same thing will play out in Essex County. Schmitt is 5 feet 7 inches tall and 140 pounds, with a shaggy tuft of hair covering his forehead; he shaves the back and sides close. Local officials made him out to be a danger. Multiple girls who viewed Schmitt's social media posts were still in fear, Giordano said at a March 1 court hearing on whether Schmitt should be released. A judge let Schmitt go home on house arrest, and Schmitt has remained there ever since, barred from using the internet or contacting anyone at the high school. He also can't upload any of his music to SoundCloud. He's spent most of his time under house arrest watching TV, recording music, and once in a while ordering Domino's. High school vice principals testified about Schmitt's disciplinary history at a hearing for the restraining order. He expects to get his high school diploma from JCHS for completing his tutoring and homeschool assignments. But I feel like here, in this town, I'm done. The next school day after the lockdown, JCHS had counselors on hand for students who were too upset to go to class. The music concert that was canceled was rescheduled for March. He was fired from his job at UPS as a package handler over the incident, he said, and some of his family members have distanced themselves from him.
