Posted 11:26 pm Sunday, May 25, 2008
Eustace High School Student Jailed For Allegedly Making Death Threats
By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer
EUSTACE — One week before graduation, a Eustace High School senior who suffers a behavioral disorder is in jail on a felony charge for allegedly making death threats to classmates despite school officials trying to pacify the situation.
Staff Writer
EUSTACE — One week before graduation, a Eustace High School senior who suffers a behavioral disorder is in jail on a felony charge for allegedly making death threats to classmates despite school officials trying to pacify the situation.
Students and parents told administrators that 18-year-old Chris Underhill made a hit list of people he wanted to kill, testimonies that didn’t seem believable but required investigation, said Assistant Principal Rob Tyner on Saturday night.
No list has been found, he said, and calls he received were “very overdramatic, students and parents telling me they were No. 1 on the list.”
Though Underhill suffers an attention-deficit disorder that qualifies him for special education, he has excelled in mainstream classes, Tyner said.
But his opinionated, attention-getting behavior stirs up trouble and draws harassment from other students, he said.
“He’s kind of starved for attention,” Tyner said. “Chris brings a lot of this harassment on himself … I think if these threats occurred it was him just running his head.”
WORRY: Pat Braune, of Payne Springs, tears up while talking about her grandson’s situation.
Underhill was moved to alternative school last week so security could monitor him, searching him each day as they drove him to and from school, Tyner said. He was warned to quit any threats.
But on Monday an incident at the alternative school led officials to call police who later arrested Underhill on Thursday and booked him into the Henderson County Jail, Tyner said.
“I don’t know what else we could have done,” Tyner said. “We were just as concerned for Chris as we were the rest of the student body.”
Underhill will still receive his diploma but won’t walk at graduation on May 31, he said.
Underhill’s mother, Dee Rainville, emerged from the jail Saturday afternoon with tears welling from her eyes.
“He is so upbeat,” she cried. “He said he wants his graduation party to go on even if he’s not out yet.”
Underhill entered the Texas Army National Guard a year ago and finds the structure and discipline calms his ADHD d, Mrs. Rainville said.
He turns 19 on Wednesday, she said, and should be celebrating that and his graduation.
“It’s very aggravating,” said her husband, Adam Rainville. “I understand taking precautions, but this seems like a rumor blown out of proportion.”
The family said a parent called Underhill a “psycho” on MySpace, and people have gone out of their way to insult him.
His cousin, Kate Braune, 17, said she’s often been ridiculed at school for defending him.
“Kids say, why are you even friends with him, because he’s my family,” she said Saturday. “Chris is different, but he’s not a bad person.”
Tyner agreed that the rumor of his threats swirled out of control.
“The rumor blew completely up, and there has been no list found,” he said.
But even if it was hot air, Underhill didn’t cease from making some sort of threat earlier this week leading police to arrest him, Tyner said.
“I hate that it all happened,” he said. “That whatever he said happened, that the arrest happened — it’s something we don’t usually have at Eustace High.”
Mrs. Rainville said policemen searched her house for three hours on Thursday and took Underhill’s computer into custody.
She said her family does not own any guns and enjoys playing games together — Underhill and his brother spend lots of time on the computer, she said.
“I don’t know why they’re still holding him if they didn’t find anything at the house,” she said. “He should be released tomorrow morning.”
A group of freshmen girls first reported Underhill making threats, Tyner said, but he thinks the senior was just trying to impress them.
Underhill is being held on $50,000 bond at the Henderson County Jail, charged with a third-degree felony of making terrorist threats.
