Putnam County school and law enforcement officials have joined countless other agencies around the state in investigating threats made in public schools since the tragic shooting at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4.
A quick online search revealed more than 30 juveniles, some as young as 11, have been arrested around the state for making terroristic threats toward schools since Sept. 4.
Eatonton and Putnam County law enforcement officers learned of one threat immediately after the Apalachee shooting. Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said he arrested a 14-year-old boy who threatened another student on social media.
The student does not live in Putnam County but attended a school there at the time.
“But the threat was not made toward the school. It was directed at one particular student,” Cardwell clarified. “That 14-year-old was charged with terroristic threats and is in custody at YDC.”
A second and separate investigation began on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 12, when a woman posted on Facebook that her child had heard from someone else that a boy said he was going to bring a gun to the middle school the next day and shoot up the school.
Sheriff Howard Sills said the statement was supposedly made on the school bus on the way home. No student reported such information to the bus driver, and neither did the Facebook-posting mother call law enforcement when her child revealed the news, he emphasized.
“She said her child had said some child told her child that some other child was going to bring a gun to the middle school,” he explained. “And so we (Sills, Cardwell, their investigators) immediately stopped everything we were doing and tracked down this child who made the threat, just like we always do.”
Cardwell and Sills worked closely with Putnam County Charter School System School Safety Director Ken Vance and PCCSS Superintendent Derick Austin to find the student who allegedly made the threat. Several hours later, Cardwell and Putnam County Sheriff’s Lt. Harry Luke met face-to-face with the parents and the child and made sure the child had no access to a firearm.
“The parents assured us, and they were very cooperative,” Sills said. “We didn’t have a search warrant, so we didn’t search every nook and cranny of the house.”
The parents brought the student to the principal’s office at the middle school the next morning before school and met with the principal, Chief Cardwell, and Lt. Luke. The student repeatedly denied making any threats.
“He said that as soon as he got on the bus, he put his earphones on and listened to music, but he didn’t talk to anybody,” Cardwell said.
So, school officials and the investigators watched the school bus video, which confirmed the boy’s statements.
“He was wearing headphones the whole time and never talked to anybody during the timeframe the girl who’d told her friends that he’d made the statement was on the bus,” Luke said.
No charges were filed against the student, but he was suspended from school for an undisclosed amount of time, according to Sills, Cardwell, and Luke.
“The crime of terroristic threats in Georgia requires corroboration, not just one person saying they heard something,” Sills explained. “We immediately jump on every one of these things and investigate them as soon as we find out about them. And I don’t know what more we can do.”
A third investigation took place Sunday evening, Sept. 15. Sills said another anonymous statement was posted on social media that somebody was coming to school Monday to shoot up the middle school.
“But no one reported it to the sheriff’s office or the police department; they put it on social media,” he said. “So, it was quarter till 2 (a.m.) when we finally located the last 11-year-old, and there was no credibility to it at all. It was just a rumor about the kid from Thursday, but he’s not returning to the school because he’s been suspended.”
The sheriff and police chief expressed their frustration several times that the rumor of threats is posted on social media instead of being reported to law enforcement.
“The girl didn’t tell the bus driver, didn’t tell the schoolteachers, she tells her friends via cell phone, and another girl tells her mama, and her mama posts it on Facebook, and it metastasizes into widespread panic,” Sills said. “We went to six houses last night (Sunday) between 7 p.m. and 1:45 a.m., and every time, we had to call the school system to find out information.”
Sills said that before these incidents, he and Cardwell had talked to the FBI to gain insight on how to prevent school shootings and threats.
“And he said the one common denominator in every facet of this stuff is the cell phone,” Sills said. “And some schools don’t allow them at all.”
“I just urge parents to closely monitor their kids’ social media activity,” Cardwell added.
Ironically, cell phone access was one of the main topics of complaints from parents at the Sept. 16 Putnam County Board of Education meeting.
Parents of high school students also demanded that their children be allowed to have their cell phones handy to call for help in case of emergencies. The high school’s current policy mandates the students put their phones in a box during classroom time.
“There are current procedures that exist to keep our children protected, although we cannot share all of them, for the sake of overall security and safety is the most important thing we do in this district,” School Superintendent Derick Austin said before parents spoke. “We are constantly reviewing security in all buildings and seeking additional means to enhance and improve security features already in place.”