Gwinnett County School Police arrested five students ranging in age from middle to high school in connection with threats on social media to commit acts of violence at 13 different schools in recent weeks.
The arrests were made last week and this week, said Tony Lockard, chief of police for Gwinnett County Public Schools. The students are being charged in juvenile court with terroristic threat and dissemination of information related to a terroristic threat.
They are also going through the school district’s disciplinary process and could be suspended or expelled, said Bernard Watson, a school district spokesman.
The threats were made on Snapchat and TikTok, Lockard said. Many were recycled from threats made against schools in other places, he said.
Most threatened to commit shootings or blow up schools in revenge for bullying or other grievances, Watson said. None of the threats were credible, school district officials said.
Police determined two of the 13 recent threats referred to schools with similar names in other states, leaving six still under investigation after the recent arrests.
Someone on Snapchat threatened to blow up Discovery High School on Tuesday, which was PSAT testing day, Principal Marci Sledge said. The school increased police presence and resolved the situation that day, Sledge said. She declined to comment on whether any of the arrests concerned her school’s case.
“Their digital footprint is going to be their digital footprint forever,” Sledge said. “Our image on that, what we portray on that, is really important, and that really should be used for those positive purposes and not destructive purposes. Parents can help us by having those conversations with their children.”
Collins Hill High School, Creekland and Dacula Middle Schools and Dacula, Mill Creek and Mountain View High Schools all received threats in recent weeks, district officials said.
The recent arrests came after school district police conducted forensic investigations to determine who posted threats or circulated them with the intent to disrupt school, Lockard said. The county police and sheriff’s departments, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Emergency Management Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation helped, he said.
The threats caused a heightened level of anxiety and possibly affected attendance at the schools, officials said.
“We’ve got students that are worried during the school day rather than being able to focus on what they should be focusing on,” Sledge said. “That does create a level of disruption and concern in the school that shouldn’t be here, at a place where kids should feel safe, and typically do feel very safe.”
Sledge blamed the increased threats on readjustment issues now that most students have returned to school after the COVID-19 pandemic kept many away.
“I think it’s a need for attention sometimes,” she said.
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