NORTHAMPTON — An 18-year-old man who was arrested on charges of making a bomb threat against Northampton High School pleaded not guilty to the charges in court Wednesday.
Chase Netto, a senior at the school, was charged with disturbing a school and making a false bomb threat after reportedly posting on the social media platform Snapchat the lyrics to a rap song that made reference to Columbine High School, the site of a 1999 school shooting that left 12 dead and 24 injured.
Northampton District Court Judge W. Michael Goggins ordered that Netto be held on $500 bail, which he was expected to post on Wednesday.
After the Snapchat post was brought to the attention of school administrators on Tuesday, they alerted law enforcement, according to prosecutors. School officials then put the school on a “hold in place” for less than an hour, Northampton Detective Lt. Alan Borowsk said.
Prosecutors from the Northwestern district attorney’s office argued at Netto’s arraignment on Wednesday that school administrators saw the social media post in the context of Netto’s having recently been barred from attending the school’s prom because he was facing a felony armed robbery charge at the time. Prosecutors also said the school had recently sent Netto a message expressing that school work he had turned in was not satisfactory.
Given that context, the commonwealth asked that Netto’s bail be revoked on the earlier charge, and requested an additional $2,500 bail for the latest charges.
However, Netto’s attorney, Luke Ryan, said that armed robbery charge has been amended to a larceny charge, and questioned the reliability of the one witness in that ongoing case.
Ryan also added that Netto had been in conversations with the school about potentially attending prom, given that the previous charge was amended down to a lesser charge. He also said Netto had been unaware of the email from the school about his work at the time of the Snapchat post. Therefore neither incident, Ryan said, amounted to any kind of trigger for rash behavior.
As for the Snapchat post, Ryan said he believed his client did not break the law. He framed the post as Netto exercising poor judgment, but in the context of a musical culture from a generation who did not live through the Columbine massacre and its aftermath.
As conditions for Netto’s release, the previous conditions from his larceny charge were extended, including electronic monitoring and a curfew. In addition, he has been ordered to refrain from posting on social media, to continue court-ordered addiction and mental health counseling and to complete 20 hours of community service by his next court date.
Netto is due back in court on June 23.