Hey Kids: E-mailing Threats to the President is Not a Good Idea

It looks like Bush Derangement Syndrome is seeping into the high schools.

Let's hope these dummies learned their lesson.

A boneheaded prank backfired on a pair of teenage cyberspace cadets who sent President Bush a death threat from a classmate's computer at an Upper West Side high school.

Federal agents quickly traced the message back to the freshmen duo, both 14, and the pair wound up getting hauled off in handcuffs.

The unidentified techno-twits were given the scare of a lifetime, along with a suspension, after the incident last week. They were later freed without being charged.

The dimwitted duo hatched their plan in a morning computer class Wednesday at the Urban Assembly Media HS near Lincoln Center, said a student at the school who asked to remain anonymous.

They performed their mischief when an unsuspecting classmate left his computer station to use the bathroom, and they darted over to his machine and punched up the Department of Homeland Security's Web site.

Then they sent a prank e-mail from the classmate's computer threatening to kill the president, said the student source.

Little did they know that Homeland Security's investigative engine had already kicked into overdrive.

Within three hours, plainclothes agents stormed the school, tracking the menacing missive to the computer lab. An hour later, they arrived at the computer in question and quickly netted the perpetrators.

I'm surprised their parents aren't whining about Gestapo tactics.