C.C.

C.C. sent his former girlfriend two text messages expressing strong negative feelings about their breakup. A delinquency petition charged him with criminal threats and making a threatening or obscene telephone communication. (Pen. Code, §§ 422, 653m, subd. (a).) 1 The People dismissed the criminal threat count and the juvenile court sustained the petition, finding C.C. sent threatening or obscene texts.

The juvenile court placed C.C. on informal probation and ordered him to write a 500-word essay on the Columbine High School shootings. C.C. completed his essay and filed this timely appeal.

We conclude C.C.’s text messages were neither threatening nor obscene as those terms are used in section 653m. They did not threaten any physical harm, as required by statute. Nor, read in context, did the vulgar language he used qualify as obscene. Accordingly, we reverse for lack of substantial evidence. We need not reach C.C.’s alternative constitutional claims.

FACTS

C.C., aged 16, sent S. two text messages. We provide them in full, redacting the names:

S., aged 16, testified she had dated C.C. for a year and a half when she received these texts on October 6, 2008. She…