The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 heightened fears about threats made in schools, and the cultural shift may have implications in the case of a teacher in Freeport who is charged with terrorizing for allegedly making a remark in class about shooting his students.

David Mason, 58, of Yarmouth was charged last month. Mason, who teaches at Freeport Middle School, was put on paid administrative leave after school officials learned of the allegation Feb. 9.

Mason was frustrated with his students and told them he wanted to take them to the school’s roof and shoot them, according to Charly Haversat, the parent of a student in the class. Haversat said her son, Theo Matheson, believed that the teacher was trying to be funny.

The increased concern about violence since Columbine affects the standard of behavior for both adults and children in schools, said Andrew Dolloff, superintendent for Regional School Unit 21, which serves Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.

“Once someone starts talking about guns and bombs and weapons around schools, that takes things to a whole different level,” he said.

Events like the Columbine shootings in Colorado are difficult to come to terms with because they happen in places where people normally feel safe and protected, said Rebecca Hoffmann Frances, a therapist and vice president of trauma and community services for the Community Counseling Center in Portland.

“Because it’s sort of this place where everyone thought they were safe, we’re very sensitive now to any sort of talk that might trigger — any sort of words — that remind us of violence,” said Hoffmann Frances.

Since Columbine, there has been a significant increase in laws about threatening behavior and an accompanying change in cultural expectations about threats in schools, said Chris Northrop, a University of Maine School of Law professor and director of the school’s Juvenile Justice Clinic.

For example, Northrop said, a seventh-grader couldn’t tell classmates about wanting to take them out on the roof and shoot them without facing discipline including expulsion, and possibly criminal charges.

“If we expect it of our children, we expect it of our teachers,” he said.

Some things that were said in schools 15 or 20 years ago are not tolerated now, in part because of the Columbine shootings, said William Michaud, who became a lawyer after retiring as Scarborough’s superintendent in 2006.

“People are generally sensitive to this kind of tragedy, as they should be. When I went to school, if a teacher said something (about shooting students), nothing would have happened,” said Michaud, who is 60 and attended schools in Portland and Lewiston.

Michaud said that was a time when a teacher might grab a student by the arm or clothing. These days, teachers avoid any physical contact with students, for fear that it could be misconstrued, he said.

To be convicted of the misdemeanor threatening charge, Mason would have to have intended to make the students fear they were in imminent danger, Michaud said.

A state Supreme Court case that addressed the question of reasonable fear put the focus on the defendant, said Walter McKee, an Augusta-based lawyer who is on the board of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“It’s solely based on what the defendant did, not how the victim took it,” he said. “If the allegation talks about machine guns on the roof of a school, that strikes me — and probably anybody looking at this — as hyperbole, not crime.”

Freeport police have forwarded Mason’s case to the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, which ultimately will decide on the charge.

John Richardson, Mason’s lawyer, said the case needs further prosecutorial review. He would not describe the alleged remark other than to say that accounts of the situation have been greatly exaggerated.

“If we consider this a criminal offense, we’re going to have to start charging people for bad jokes and distasteful remarks,” he said.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Madigan said he expects a decision about prosecution in the coming weeks. He said he could not comment about the details of the allegation.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:

akim@pressherald.com