As the OP of this thread, I'm finally piping in with my opinion of this matter.

What Sarah did was wrong. Everyone knows. This is indisputable.

Does this mean the rest of her life should be ruined/she should have a black mark on her record? Background checks permanently marred with this? No. You're not the same person at 18/19 as you were at 13/14. Teenagers make mistakes, that's part of the learning process. It's a bit harder on her generation today because of the immediate exposure/technology "exposing" everything people do, and the lack of an ability to "clean your tracks" or cover up so only a few knows of your mistake. We live in a world where everything is fast-paced, relentless, and everything spreads like wildfire immediately. We have Twitter, IG, Facebook, social media, and even the news outlets picking out what's "trending" - so word gets out, and quickly. It's very easy to become marred, and unlike with your parents/the authorities, there's no way to get forgiven from anonymous strangers. That's the unfortunate fact of the modern world we live in today.

The thing is, Sarah's a teenager. Teenagers have hormones, teenagers act without thinking. Has always been that way, always will be that way. Yes, what she did was a bit over the top, but then again, that's just the way teenagers are. They don't understand the consequences. One could argue that she should know better, especially in a post-9/11 world, but most teenagers think the world revolves around them, and that everyone around them (up to and including companies, such as AA) will know/assume they were joking. Sometimes it's easy to forget how seriously companies take stuff these days.

So, to conclude, I think Sarah should definitely be taught some kind of lesson, be told in no uncertain terms that what she did was wrong, and be explained to the realities of joking about terrorism in today's world, and also be sentenced to some community service, but that's it. Nothing on her record. Just a serious wake-up call, and maybe have her give a speech about the importance of being mindful of your Internet presence, but I'd say, let it go. It was a harmless prank gone viral, and the company in question happened to take it very seriously (for valid reasons). Sarah is lucky she didn't use her full name.

I know some of you will disagree with me, it's easy to quickly bring out the pitchforks and massacre anyone who remotely seems like they're supporting terrorism. I don't support terrorism, nor do I support joking about terrorism, but I DO support common sense and a reasonable approach to situations. Not just throwing the book at someone on the very first joke or murmur,, and expecting them to suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives. We are all human, we make mistakes, and we shouldn't let the "lurking" threat of a terrorist boogeyman being right there all the time make us clam up or immediately scream "Guam" for every little mistake/prank. My two cents.