Second Jackson school faces potential threat
JACKSON, Tenn. — Another local school experienced a possible threat on Friday.
According to Greg Hammond, from the Jackson-Madison County School System, after school hours, the Jackson Police Department saw what could be identified as a possible threat from a Northeast Middle School student on social media.
They reached out to the school system and notified them of the student’s threat.
School administration took action by calling in additional security from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. The extra security was in addition to their full-time resource officer to assure students were safe.
“The normal school activities continued throughout the day. However, because of that information, the administration there at Northeast, following safety protocols, increased the number of law enforcement that was on their campus,” Hammond said.
Much like what happened at Rose Hill Middle School on Thursday, the school system did send out an email to parents notifying them of the increase in security on Northeast’s campus Friday throughout the school day.
“In the case of Rose Hill, it was administration that caught wind of questionable activity on social media at first. That was the case at Rose Hill, but in the situation today, it was actually law enforcement that brought it to the school’s attention at Northeast. Again, the circle of communication is very important and we take these matters very seriously,” Hammond said.
After the Jackson Police Department completed their investigation, they did find out that this was not a credible threat. They also identified the student that began the threat.
“Not only will a student in a situation like this face the consequence of whatever legal action local law enforcement take, but they will also have the repercussions of our student code of conduct,” Hammond said.
Hammond says that the student code of conduct has five levels of severity. Level one consists of behaviors that impede orderly operation of the classroom or school, like cheating or excessive tardiness.
Hammond says with the incident that happened on Friday, those are considered level four and five offenses. These are behaviors that result in zero tolerance consequences.
“Many of these incidences result in the immediate removal of a student. You think about expulsion of the school year, you think about out of school or alternative placement. This is in addition to any legal ramifications a student would face for using social media to make a threat,” Hammond said.
The investigation is ongoing and the exact details of the repercussions the student will face are not public at this time.
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