Last week, four people were shot at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia. This was the deadliest school shooting in Georgia. Because of the new threats that are going around on social media, many parents have decided to keep their kids home from school today.
Tattnall County Schools’ superintendent, Dr. Kristen Waters, was worried about how these threats would affect the schools. “Seeing that our students may truly have some fears about being in their school is disheartening,” she noted.
After the shooting last week, schools were on high watch on Monday when threats of more violence came in. Waters said that these threats, which were shared on social media sites like Snapchat, reached almost all of the schools in her area.
“We received word about the threats late at night, and by early morning, officers were visiting the homes of students involved,” Waters said.
Social media is being used as proof by the police to bring students who make threats to justice. Twelve teens from across Georgia could go to jail soon. One of the teens is in fourth grade in Evans County, and the other teens are much younger.
An ex-Georgia lawyer and current ABC Legal contributor named 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,” he said. “These threats are taken more seriously now due to the tragic events we’ve seen.”
Timmons also said that schools could be sued if they don’t do anything about threats and something bad happens. “Schools have potential liability if they don’t take these threats seriously,” he said.
More importantly, Waters said, the focus is still on making sure kids are safe and healthy. “I don’t want them to ever feel like they’re not safe at school,” she stated. “We invest significant time and effort into building relationships with our students.”
The source of each threat is still being looked into by authorities, who are asking anyone who comes across such threats to report them to school officials and not share them with the public.