Father Writes Letter 'To the Teen Who Planned to Kill My Son'

Charles Martin, shown here with his sons Michael, left, and Joseph, wrote an open letter to the suspect planning a mass casualty attack at the local high school. Photo courtesy Charles Martin.

A father who learned of a thwarted mass casualty attack at his son’s school has written an open letter to the suspect that has gone viral.

On Friday, police in Edmond, Okla., announced that a male student was facing criminal charges after items used in making explosives and blueprints of a plan to kill several people were found at the student’s home. Police were tipped off by friends of the teen after they received troubling text messages from him two weeks ago.

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Charles Martin, whose 15-year-old son Michael is a freshman at Edmond North High School, where the plan was to be carried out, learned about the plot on Sunday afternoon. “I was going to play Frisbee with my friends and as I was waiting for everyone to show up, I stumbled across the story online,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “When I got home, I sat down and typed out the letter.”

In the note, which Martin titled “To The Teen Who Planned To Kill My Son” and posted to the website of his small publishing company, Literati Press, the 38-year-old creative director expresses his understanding, and even gratitude, to the suspect. “It was the winter that made it so hard, wasn’t it? That’s when you sent the texts to your friends that led them to notify the authorities. It was those damn snow days. The winter always brings me down too, so it’s not just you. We all get tremendously sad sometimes,” he wrote. “I have no idea what you are thinking right now. You are being held in a treatment facility, which I think is wise. Charges will be filed, but I am not sure that jail is the right place for you. I want to believe that you texted your friends because you wanted to be caught. You wanted to be stopped. Your friends are heroes. Maybe you felt yourself getting out of control and tipped your hand in hopes someone would stop you, which also makes you a bit of a hero.”

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Martin, who is the author several books, says he was inspired to show empathy for the suspect after a recent trip. “I went to Austin with a friend who works with troubled patients, people who’ve had issues with drugs and depression, and we had a conversation about showing empathy for people who may have made mistakes in the past but are still human,” he says. “Because nothing happened and the plan was thwarted before this boy could follow through, it gives me the luxury to be a bit more forgiving than if something horrible would have happened.”

Charles Martin’s son Michael, left, goes to high school with the suspect who was planning a mass casualty attack. Photo via Instagram/LiteratiPress

The post got more than 20,000 hits in 12 hours, causing the Literati Press site to crash. Martin then posted the letter to Facebook, where it was shared more than 3,000 times and got more than 200,000 views.

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Martin, who also has a 13-year-old son, says he believes the letter attracted so much attention because of its surprising tone. “The natural reaction when your children are threatened is to circle the wagons and prepare to fend off whatever dangers are lurking,” he says. “Of course I had that sickening twist in my gut, I wanted to do something to protect, but I didn’t really need to because our community did that for us. Teachers, his friends, and police did the right thing before this could become something darker. The only way I felt I could do something helpful was to offer a voice of empathy and try to personalize this troubled teen whose life had to have been really bad and it is going to be bad for a long time. He is going to be punished for this and it’s going to be very, very hard for him.”

Michael, who Martin says probably doesn’t know the still-unnamed suspect, will return to school on Monday, when spring break is over.

The full text of the letter is below.

To The Teen Who Planned To Kill My Son:

We found out Friday that you were planning on killing students at Edmond North. The details of your scheme are still not that clear, at least what’s been made public, but it seems you were hoping for a high body count. My son is a freshman at Edmond North. He doesn’t enjoy school either, but he is a bright young man with a beautiful smile and one of the sharpest comedic instincts I’ve ever seen. He tends to insulate himself from the world with his headphones and is obsessed with hip hop. I doubt you know each other since you are sixteen, so presumably a sophomore or maybe a junior. Odds are that you’ve never even crossed paths with my son. Perhaps he would have been safe had you carried out your plan.

But perhaps not.

It was the winter that made it so hard, wasn’t it? That’s when you sent the texts to your friends that led them to notify the authorities. It was those damn snow days. The winter always brings me down too, so it’s not just you. We all get tremendously sad sometimes.

We spent those snow days playing board games and sledding down the hills of our neighborhood. You spent your time researching bombs, even starting to assemble one. I wonder what you used. You might have even been at the same hardware store when we got our sled. I wonder if you went sledding too. Maybe we saw you. Maybe I would know you by sight, but probably not.

I have no idea what you are thinking right now. You are being held in a treatment facility, which I think is wise. Charges will be filed, but I am not sure that jail is the right place for you. I want to believe that you texted your friends because you wanted to be caught. You wanted to be stopped. Your friends are heroes. Maybe you felt yourself getting out of control and tipped your hand in hopes someone would stop you, which also makes you a bit of a hero. Maybe. I can’t say for sure since we’ve never spoken nor do I know anything of you aside from what can be found online. Maybe you are a bad person, but it seems you are just angry and desperate. That is understandable. High school is a tough place. It often made me angry and desperate too.

But then it ended and I went to college. Life got better in small measures until I finally reached a place in my life where I became happy and fulfilled. As impossible as it may seem now, you have a chance at that too. As does my son and all the other teenagers who are still alive because you were caught.

Listen to the therapists at the treatment facility. Whatever comes of this situation, please hold onto the hope that you could one day put the darkness behind you. Perhaps, years into the future, you will reach out to a teenager that feels the way you once did and you can help him avoid making horrible decisions with his life. Nothing is guaranteed to make us feel better, but helping other people comes pretty damn close.

Your path forward is going to be complicated and hard, but remember that you are not a killer. You were on a path to become a killer, but your own actions led to my son being alive today. Again, I have no idea if he would have even been in the same part of the building where you executed your plan. Edmond North is a massive complex. But he could have been. The point is irrelevant because you did not have a chance to kill him.
Instead of mourning, my son, his brother, and I are going to have a long, happy spring break. We are going to go climbing, play frisbee, go on a road trip, play board games and video games, discuss music production, and laugh about all the stupid things we always say to each other. He is a wonderful kid. I don’t know you, but I am certain that there is a part of you that is wonderful too. Not executing your plan allows me the freedom to wish the best for you. Had you killed someone, this letter would be much different. I may never meet you, but if I do, I hope that I am strong enough to thank you.

And if I meet your friends, I will be tempted to hug them, but probably won’t because that would make them uncomfortable just as hugging made me uncomfortable when I was a teenager.

I will spend a lot of time discussing this with my boys just as I am sure there [sic] mother has. I need to find Rudderless, a movie made in Oklahoma about a school shooting. It is a powerful film, but my boys haven’t seen it yet. We will then discuss the film. Maybe you should watch it too. It will help you imagine what the lives of your family would be like if you had successfully carried out the attack. Maybe not. Talk to your counselors. Trust them. They know more than I do.

But finally and most importantly, thank you. You reached out to your friends and they made the brave decision to ask for help. A tragedy was averted and, I hope, your life will now start the long journey of getting back to better.

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