Accused threat-maker sick, not dangerous, family says

Daughter of man who threatened Oak Park schools talks about his grief, dementia



GRIEF—Rants against Oak Park schools were intended as anguished venting to friends, not actual threats, says the family of Morton Green. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

GRIEF—Rants against Oak Park schools were intended as anguished venting to friends, not actual threats, says the family of Morton Green. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

Grief, dementia and other medical problems may have contributed to the recent behavior of Morton Green, a former Oak Park Unified parent who blamed the school district for the untimely death of his son, Robert Green, and threatened to use explosives at local schools as revenge.

Green seemed to imply on Facebook that his son died by suicide, which stemmed from bullying and mistreatment at the hands of Oak Park High School football coaches and fellow students in the mid-1990s.

Green’s daughter, Julianne Green, offered explanations for her father’s behavior.

In an interview with The Acorn, Julianne Green, who now lives in Maryland, said that her brother did not commit suicide.

“It was an accident,” she said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

As for her father’s threatening behavior, Green said he is experiencing the ravages of dementia and other medical issues that have rendered him frail and confused at the age of 74.

“He is harmless and by no means capable of the crimes he is being charged with or the actions he threatened on Facebook,” she said.

Her father, Green said, doesn’t understand the internet or Facebook and believed he was privately ranting to a friend about his son’s life and death.

Despite her sympathy for her father, Green said, she does not condone his behavior but instead believes it was a “cry for help.”

“We intend to get him the best treatment he can get to help him overcome his grief and mourning,” she said.

Green stressed that while her brother was mistreated in high school, she does not believe there was any connection between high school problems in the 1990s and his death.

“I would say ‘no’ about the problems in high school impacting his life now,” she said.

She spoke about the abuse her brother endured at Oak Park High.

“When Robert was on the football team (at Oak Park High) he did have long hair, which was very important to him as a personal choice,” she said. “He was called a slew of different names, including racial slurs.”

The Green family is Jewish, and Robert was taunted for wearing a Star of David necklace underneath his jersey, his sister said.

“He had his jaw broken by teammates—not during a game, off the field,” Julianne Green said. “He had a teacher place wooden crosses on his desk and (wave them at him) on the field. A coach at the time ripped his hair out in front of me, my brother David, my parents—the whole school. My brother was 14 at the time.”

“On behalf of my family, and myself, I would like to apologize for all of the things my father said and all of the people he scared, including their families,” she said. “Also, I would like to say he is grieving very strongly, and he has early signs of becoming senile and issues associated with that.”