Four Gilmer County students have been charged with felony terroristic threats for two separate incidents which occurred at local schools.
One student was of elementary school age.
“We have to take any threat to our students seriously,” said Gilmer County Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley. “We are not going to take chances.”
In the first incident which occurred at Gilmer High School Sept. 11, a student was found in possession of a toy gun, according to a Facebook post on the Gilmer County Schools page. Another student reported the item to school administrators.
“We always knew it was a toy gun,” said Dr. Ridley. “We believe it was brought for the purpose of a prank. A very bad prank.”
Although a toy, Ridley said the gun was black and the only way to tell the difference was the toy gun was smaller than a normal weapon. With tensions heightened all over the state, Ridley said the toy could have caused school resource officers to react.
“You really put a lot of people in danger,” he said.
A follow-up statement by the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office said three students were taken into custody in relation to the toy gun. All three juveniles were charged with felony terroristic threats and disruption of a public school and were being held at Dalton Youth Detention Center.
All three were freshmen at the high school, Ridley said.
Several more students at the high school were disciplined for knowing about the toy gun and not reporting it to the administration, he said.
A second incident was reported at Ellijay Elementary School Sept. 12, according to the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.
A fifth-grade student had an incident at the school, Ridley said. Officials from the sheriff’s office followed up and took the student into custody.
The student was charged with felony terroristic threats and is being held at Dalton Youth Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office post.
“Some people might not understand this as the child is elementary age, however, in the current climate that we are in regarding school violence, we in law enforcement cannot and will not disregard any threat to our schools or community regardless of a student’s age or background,” Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson posted. “The decisions of ‘what to do with these students’ cannot be made by law enforcement. Those decisions will have to be left up to the courts.”
Ridley said some further punishments may be forthcoming for the four students, but first the court system will be allowed to take its course.
Parents wanting up-to-the-minute information is understandable. Ridley wants them to know their students are safe. However, some information is limited because of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, some because the students are juveniles and because some investigations are ongoing.
“We’re still working through everything,” he said. “We’re going to follow the law and we’re going to protect the kids.”