WINDHAM — Tina Woodbury wants people to know her son isn’t a monster and said she believes no children were ever in danger as a result of emails he is charged with sending that led to a three-day shutdown of Regional School Unit 14.

Woodbury was obviously distraught Thursday morning when interviewed by phone at the family’s Windham home. She was getting ready to go to juvenile court Thursday afternoon, when her son, Justin, is scheduled to be arraigned on terrorizing charges for threatening emails that police say he sent to district officials on Monday morning.

Woodbury said she’s very upset with her son, but she believes Windham police have blown the situation out of proportion.

“My son is a good boy,” she said, sometimes weeping as she spoke. “He made a bad choice, but he’s not the monster they’re making him out to be. None of those children were ever in danger.”

Classes resumed Thursday morning at the district’s eight schools after police traced back the email messages, seized a firearm from the Woodbury home and arrested Justin Woodbury. The boy has been held at The Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland since his arrest Tuesday night.

Woodbury said she’s angry that police haven’t released the contents of the threatening emails so she can judge for herself whether her son wrote them.

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“There’s no manifesto,” she said. “My son is far from a nut.”

Woodbury said her son has learning disabilities and difficulty writing, so she would be able to discern if he wrote them. She said she believes others were involved and that the emails were sent as part of a bet among her son’s cronies.

Woodbury described her son as a quiet loner who “doesn’t go out” and is “connected to his computer.” She brought him to a counselor once, she said, but the counselor said there was nothing wrong with her son’s behavior.

Woodbury said she has read negative and threatening comments posted on stories online about her son and she’s fearful that people will hurt her family. She denied allegations that her son hurt any students in the past or that he left Windham schools because of discipline problems.

She said he attended Windham High School for a while during his freshman year, then transferred to Baxter Academy because of its emphasis on science and mathematics.

“I love my son with all my heart,” she said, her words dissolving into sobs. “I feel so bad for my boy.”


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