An Oregon teen appeared in court yesterday, after planning to bomb his school in an attack that was to rival that of Columbine.
The teen, 17-year-old Grant Acord, is said to be suffering from a rare form of obsessive-compulsive disorder and will be using that as his defense.
“My heart goes out to everyone affected by Grant’s struggle with PANDAS, a rare form of OCD,” Marianne Fox said in regard to her son. “I grieve for my son, but understand and support the efforts of law enforcement to keep our beloved community safe.” She added “This is a challenging and confusing time for everyone who knows Grant. I will have no further comment while I wait with the rest of you to see what unfolds.”
According to Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson, Acord’s goal, “was to model the Columbine shootings with some adjustments that would make it a greater success.” Fortunately, his plot was discovered and foiled before he could bring it to fruition.
Acord is being charged as an adult for attempted aggravated murder.
PANDAS? Never heard of it before so I decided to do a bit of research on it.
As per the NIH: PANDAS – Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections – is a term used to describe a subset of children and adolescents who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and/or tic disorders, and in whom symptoms worsen following strep. infections such as "Strep throat" and Scarlet Fever. [….]
Apparently, the jury is still out on this one, at least from a psychiatric perspective anyway….
WikiPed: PANDAS has not been validated as a disease entity. It is not listed as a diagnosis by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). [….]
I don't buy this defense. Not at all. But it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.