Alva Review-Courier -

CONKLIN, N.Y. (AP) — In the waning days of Payton Gendron's COVID-altered senior year at Susquehanna Valley High School, he logged on to a virtual learning program in economics class that asked: "What do you plan to do when you retire?"

"Murder-suicide," Gendron typed.

Despite his protests that it was all a joke, the bespectacled 17-year-old who had long been viewed by classmates as a loner with good grades was questioned by state police over the possible threat and then taken into custody and to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under a state mental health law.

But a day and a half late...