Juvenile Arrested For Threat To DMS But Many Threats Deemed Non-Credible

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

In the wake of the Apalachee High School shooting in Barrow County, Ga., many law enforcement agencies have been investigating threats to schools across Georgia and the southeast. Many of these threats have been deemed non-credible, but each has been taken extremely seriously by law enforcement.

Here in Dade County, threats that circulated on social media on the evening of Monday, Sept. 9, were deemed non-credible. On Wednesday morning (Sept. 11) however, a Marion County, Tenn. juvenile was arrested for threats to Dade Middle School.

Regarding the Monday posts, the Dade County Sheriff’s Office published a statement on Monday evening explaining that they contacted an agent with Homeland Security, had deputies investigating the threats, were communicating with Dade County Schools administration, and had not yet found evidence of a credible threat.

The following morning (Sept. 10), DCSO explained that investigations into two separate reports resulted in no credible evidence of a threat. The department cited a list that had been pulled from the Georgia Department of Education’s website. This list had been circulating on social media, and state law enforcement warned schools that it might pop up in local regions.

Sergeant Chad Payne (public information officer) explained to the Sentinel that someone seems to have pulled the list of Title I schools (which includes Davis Elementary School and Dade Elementary School) from the GaDOE website and presented it as a hit list which then circulated social media. No specific threat to Davis or DES was made.

DCSO’s report continued, “The other incident was reported to parents by some students who overheard that someone saw a photo of a gun and a threat on social media, and it was possibly posted by a middle school student. We interviewed the parents and students last night, and we were unable to gather any additional info of substance, due to it being third-party information. It appears the students may have seen the photo of a gun circulating the area in regards to Marion County Public Schools (KY), which also shut down Marion (KY) schools yesterday, based off the description we were provided.”

Even though no credible threat was found, Sheriff Ray Cross stationed extra deputies at all four Dade schools as an extra precaution. The department said that those who reported the threats did the right thing.

Regarding the Wednesday morning threat, DCSO published, “We received information from Marion County, TN Dispatch that a juvenile who resides in Jasper, TN had made threats via social media towards Dade Middle School. Our deputies immediately notified the school system and responded to DMS as a precautionary measure until the juvenile was located.

“Jasper, TN Police Department quickly located the juvenile and notified DCSO that they had the juvenile in custody. Tennessee Law Enforcement has notified us that they will be charging the juvenile with Tennessee Code Section 39-16-517 (threat of mass violence on school property or at school-related activity).”

Payne reported that the juvenile is a 14-year-old male. Jasper PD took the lead on the case with assistance from Homeland Security. The Sentinel left a message with Jasper PD to ask if there is a known connection between the juvenile and Dade County/DMS and what exactly was in the social media post. As of press time, the Sentinel has not heard back from Jasper, and Homeland Security could not release details due to it being Jasper’s case.

Sheriff Cross said, “We always take school threats seriously. We will investigate and prosecute any threat of violence to our school system, to the fullest extent of the law, with zero tolerance. I want to thank everyone in Marion County for their assistance with this, as well as Jasper PD for their quick response and location of the juvenile. My investigators will continue to work with Tennessee authorities on this case, offering assistance with anything they need.”

Payne reported that law enforcement is warned that threats (especially fake threats) spread like wildfire after every school shooting. It is difficult to trace online posts that circulate quickly to the original source. Payne explained that DCSO can’t track IP addresses, but Homeland Security and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation can investigate the source if situations meet certain criteria.

Payne added that the social media company Snapchat is notoriously uncooperative with law enforcement, fighting against subpoenas and sending encrypted information in response to subpoenas. Snapchat is a popular app among children and adolescents.

When asked what the public can do to help these situations, Payne said, “Creating a panic on social media doesn’t help our cause any. Instead of sharing the threats online, we’d love people to notify us. We ask that parents stay vigilant and continue to call us if they hear anything.”

He also asks the public to be patient in regard to what information the sheriff’s office is able to share. During ongoing investigations, law enforcement must be careful about what is released. For example, Payne cited the Sept. 3 incident on Gass Road as covered in last week’s Sentinel: If DCSO released information before obtaining and executing the search warrant, the suspect could have gotten rid of the gun which he shot in the vicinity of a school bus.

The threats seem to have led to increased absences on Tuesday (Sept. 10). Josh Ingle (superintendent) reported that on a typical day, about 95 percent of students are at school. This percentage is across all four schools.

On Tuesday, attendance was only 76 percent. (Some of these absences were due to sickness or other causes). Wednesday’s attendance increased to 87 percent, and Thursday saw a return to 95 percent.