Four people were shot at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last week, in what was Georgia’s bloodiest school shooting. In reaction, new threats making the rounds on social media have led many parents to decide to keep their kids home from school today.
Tattnall County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kristen Waters voiced alarm about the implications of these threats. “Seeing that our students may truly have some fears about being in their school is disheartening,” she remarked.
Schools were placed on high alert on Monday in the wake of last week’s shooting as threats of comparable violence surfaced. Waters observed that almost every school in her district was impacted by these threats, which were disseminated via social media sites like Snapchat.
“We received word about the threats late at night, and by early morning, officers were visiting the homes of students involved,” Waters continued.
Social media is being used by the authorities as proof in cases involving threats made by students. Potential jail time is currently looming for more than a dozen teenagers in Georgia; several of the cases involve extremely young students, one of whom is a fourth-grader in Evans County.
Former Georgia prosecutor and ABC Legal contributor Chris Timmons stressed how seriously these threats are now being taken. “A bomb threat or a school shooting threat is considered a terroristic threat, which is a felony,” Timmons added. “These threats are taken more seriously now due to the tragic events we’ve seen.”
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Timmons added that schools can be held legally responsible if they do not respond to threats and an incident happens. “Schools have potential liability if they don’t take these threats seriously,” he stated.
More significantly, as Waters pointed out, the security and welfare of the students continue to be the primary priorities. “I don’t want them to ever feel like they’re not safe at school,” she said. “We invest significant time and effort into building relationships with our students.”
Threats of this nature are still being looked into by authorities, who advise anyone who comes across them to report them to school authorities rather than disseminating them to the public.
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