STATEN ISLAND — A mom accused of threatening to blow up a high school after her daughter failed an exam has been acquitted.
A jury found Karen Shearon, 49, not guilty of aggravated harassment after she threatened to blow up Susan E. Wagner High School over the phone after her daughter failed a Regents exam, her lawyer Todd Spodek said.
Spodek argued that even though his client did threaten to blow up the school, she wasn't serious and the school never took it as a realistic threat and didn't immediately call 911 to report it.
"The statute requires the specific intent to harass and I was confident that the intent could not be inferred from Ms. Shearon's words alone," Spodek said in a statement after the acquittal on Wednesday.
"Words alone don't mean anything."
On Feb. 3, 2015, a counselor from the school called Shearon to let her know her daughter had failed the exam, police said.
When she heard the news, she told the counselor "I am going to blow up the school," according to court papers.
Shearon was arrested the next day.
"Our office takes very seriously any threat or danger to our children or public schools and, although we disagree with the jury's decision, we respect it and thank them for their service," a spokeswoman for District Attorney Michael McMahon said in a statement.