South Side High School increases security after threat

JACKSON, Tenn. — This picture was posted on social media, allegedly taken in a bathroom stall at South Side High School. It involves a racist message threatening to kill certain people.

Jackson-Madison County Schools Superintendent Ray Washington spoke with WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News over the phone Wednesday. He confirmed the message was real, but they were still not sure if it was credible.

“I started to hear about this yesterday around 4:00 in the evening. At that time, we had not found any credibility on what was going on. What we did was try and track down who sent the social media post out,” Washington said. “JPD got involved yesterday afternoon when we first got the post.”

School officials have identified the student who initially shared the post on social media, but the student who wrote the post on the stall has not been identified.

Washington says the district did have an increase in law enforcement present at the school as a precaution, but he says that they chose not to notify parents by phone.

“We have situations that come up, and then we find that it’s not credible. But if you do an all-call, it causes more drama if you don’t prove the threat to be credible. If that’s the case, we could have an all-call every other day,” Washington said.

Washington wants to remind students that if you see or hear a threat, notify school administrators first.

“Instead of the student letting administration know it was there, he just took a picture of it and sent it out without administration knowing it was there,” Washington said.

Washington confirmed the student who initially posted the picture on social media was sent home Wednesday as a precaution.