The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld an order of probation for a student found to have made terroristic threats, including stating a desire to "beat the record" for the number of deaths in a school shooting.

A three-judge panel consisting of Judges Mary Jane Bowes, Alice Dubow and John Musmanno affirmed that then 15-year-old vocational school student J.J.M. was delinquent of terroristic threats, based on testimony from students and a member of school administration.

According to Bowes' Sept. 10 published opinion, fellow students expressed concerns to school administrators after overhearing J.J.M. talking about death and a desire to "beat the record of 19," which they construed as referring to the number of deaths in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which had occurred less than a week earlier. He was later expelled from the school.

After a juvenile court placed J.J.M. on probation and ordered him to undergo mental health treatment, he appealed to the Superior Court. He argued that there wasn't enough evidence to support the order and that the statute against terroristic threats violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Fifth and 14th amendment due process rights.

J.J.M. argued that the statements he made, taken alone, have no meaning.

However, Bowes said that J.J.M.'s words were clearly threatening.

"We conclude that the evidence sufficiently established that appellant made his threat with reckless disregard for the risk that it would cause terror," Bowes said. "Again, the facts are that, while the news was dominated by the deadliest high school shooting in this country's history, appellant proclaimed in a high school hallway, between classes, loud enough for other students to hear, that he wanted to 'beat the record of 19.' We do not hesitate to conclude that appellant consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his threat would terrorize his fellow students."

The panel added in a footnote that while the death toll of the Parkland shooting was actually 17, the student who reported hearing the comment also said she was not certain of the number J.J.M. stated.

Additionally, the statute against making terroristic threats did not impede J.J.M.'s free speech rights, Bowes said.

"A threat made with the mental state of recklessness, i.e., with conscious disregard of the risk of causing terror, constitutes a true threat falling outside the scope of the protections of the First Amendment," Bowes said.

The evidence did not suggest that he was joking or didn't mean what he said, Bowes noted.

"Rather, appellant, who had cultivated an image among his classmates as one who relished the thought of death to human beings, must have known the effect that his words would have upon his fellow students in the wake of the Parkland shooting," Bowes said. "Yet he chose to utter them anyway, in school, in the hallway between classes, for anyone and everyone around him to hear."

J.J.M.'s other constitutional challenges failed as well.

J.J.M. is represented by Robert Buttner of the Luzerne County Public Defender's Office. Stefanie Salavantis of the county district attorney's office prosecuted the case.

Neither could be reached for comment.