Schoolboy Death Note “The Next Columbine!”

The almighty influence of the Death Note series has apparently inspired a New Hampshire school student to write up a death-inducing notebook of his own, naturally leading to a crisis amongst concerned parents upon the harmless notebook’s discovery.

The “Death Note” in question contained the names of 17 students attending the school and also provided reasons how the students wronged the anonymous writer, with some reasons being as simple as “a dirty look in 2nd grade, 8 years ago” – in addition to the date and times of their supposed death.

One particularly upset parent who wrote to the school faculty even compared the potentially dangerous event to Columbine, a statement that even now some might regard as a tiny bit of an overreaction:

“My daughter doesn’t want to return to school and is afraid for her safety both at school and outside of school…I REFUSE to take this lightly. School shootings start with a list of people who have wronged an individual… ​I don’t want [the school] to be the next Columbine because we didn’t take a death threat list seriously.​”

Police investigation determined that the writer in question had no murderous intent after interviewing the culprit and parents, with some believing the notebook might have been created due to stress, bullying or other personal conflicts, rather than an imminent exercise of the student’s Second Amendment rights as an American.

While not the first instance of an “actual” Death Note making its appearance at a school, the sheer number of cases may yet prove useful in reviving the show’s popularity – perhaps even more so if the subject of a moral panic and ban.