Woman jailed after threatening to bomb Catholic school for supporting LGBT+ alumnae
The Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, DC. (Getty/ The Washington Post/ Marvin Joseph)
A woman in California who threatened to bomb a Catholic school for supporting LGBT+ rights has been handed a 15-month prison sentence.
Sonia Tabizada was charged with making a bomb threat against the all-girls Catholic Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington DC in December, 2019.
She vowed to “kill kids” after the school’s alumnae magazine announced it would publish news of former students’ same-sex marriages.
At the time, sister Mary Berchmans, president emerita of the school, wrote that the Catholic church was “clear in its teaching that we are all children of God, that we each have dignity and are worthy of respect and love.”
Infuriated by the Catholic school’s support of LGBT+ alumnae, Tabizada phoned the school and said: “Hey motherf**kers, I’m going to burn that f**king church, I’m going to bomb it, b***h! I’m going to f**king kill you guys.
“I’m going to send my f**king soldiers, motherf**kers. Remove the f**king gay motherf**kers from your magazine, or I’m going to f**king kill your kids. That’s a promise.”
In a second phone call, around a minute later she added: “What kind of pervert priests do you guys have running the show? Nobody cares for those girls? You’re crushing the innocent, motherf**king a**hole.
“I’m gonna f**king blow up the school and call it a mission from God. You guys are going to get terrorism within your f**king school, motherf**ker. And you’re going to be guilty. And I warned you!”
Although Tabizada initially said she was innocent, she later pleaded guilty to the charge of intentionally obstructing persons in the enjoyment of their free exercise of religious beliefs by threatening to bomb the Catholic school.
According to US Department of Justice, Tabizada has been sentenced to 15 months and 13 days in prison, as well as two years of supervised release.
Pamela Karlan, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement: “No school and no child should be subjected to death threats, because of their religious beliefs.
“The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute violent threats motivated by bias.”
Acting US attorney Channing Phillips for the District of Columbia, added: “The citizens of the District of Columbia and our country are entitled to freely exercise their religious beliefs and to be free from threats of violence based on bias — be it against religion, race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics.
“The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is committed to protecting the civil rights of all our citizens and will do so by vigorously enforcing both federal and local hate crime laws.”
