A juvenile suspect was arrested Thursday morning for a social media threat made against South Hall Middle School. Meanwhile, five students from Gwinnett County's school district faces charges for school threats.
An investigation began the night before around 8:30 p.m. when a concerned parent shared a screenshot of the social media post with Hall County deputies. According to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, on Wednesday evening the post, which appeared to be from Snapchat, threatened to shoot students. The threat was not made against specific students but did indicate it was students at South Hall Middle.
Deputies notified school resource officers and the Hall County School District personnel. They began an investigation and were able to identify the student and took him into custody around 9 a.m. Thursday morning. Extra law enforcement was present in the school, as well, as a precaution.
The student was turned over to Hall County Juvenile Court. He is being charged with making terroristic threats and disrupting a public school. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office says that the case remains under investigation, but they found no evidence that the threat was credible.
The Hall County School System also released a statement saying, “The safety of our students and staff and the protection of the learning environment is the district’s chief concern. Social media posts that threaten any of these will be dealt with accordingly.”
This arrest is just one of many across our area as school threats have been on the rise.
In fact, the number of threats in Gwinnett County has increased significantly just over the last couple of weeks. According to Gwinnett County Police, 13 different schools all received some form of online threats in recent weeks. Now the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says five students have been arrested in connection with the threatening social media posts.
The students were arrested last week and this one and range in ages from middle to high school. The threats were made on Snapchat and TikTok, although police determined two of the 13 threats were actually made elsewhere in the country, but with schools of the same name. After the recent arrests, that still leaves six cases being investigated.
The students involved are being charged in juvenile court with terroristic threats and dissemination of information related to a terroristic threat. The school will also take disciplinary action, as well, and students could be suspended or expelled.
