What happens when a student makes a threat at school?

Over the last few years, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office has documented roughly 300 incidents of juveniles communicating threats of violence at school. 

While some cases are more serious than others, each can sow fear among students and families, and greatly disrupt the work of educators. WFDD’s Amy Diaz takes a look at the impact of these threats and how local schools are responding.

'Our hands are tied'

Back in September, a video of two Forsyth County grandparents talking about an issue involving their grandson at school spread across Facebook like wildfire. 

“Today, we received [a] rather concerning call from our daughter-in-law, which it was tagged into a conference call from the principal at Jefferson Middle School that said our son, our grandson, had been put on a hit list," said James Gordon.

The incident he and Susan Gordon recounted happened just days after a 14-year-old shot and killed two classmates and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia. The proximity of that event, the Gordons said, made what happened to their grandson even more terrifying.

But their other concern was how they believed the student who made the list, would be punished. 

“Best they can tell us is the kid's going to get between two and four days suspension from school, and if he proves not to be a threat, he'll be released back into the general population of the school," Gordon said. "And that's not acceptable.”

The video was shared 80 times, had more than 12,000 views and was picked up by local TV stations. 

The families of the students directly involved in the incident had been contacted by the school, but many other parents decided to keep their children home in the following days out of fear for their safety. Many wanted to know exactly what happened to the student who made the threat.

But under juvenile justice laws and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, it’s illegal for the district to share that information.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Chief Safety Officer Jonathan Wilson says the lack of an answer can cause more problems.  

“When you don't tell someone something, and they have to start putting these pieces together in their mind, then the fear becomes bigger," Wilson said. "You know what occurs in your mind is, many times, much worse than it truly is. But it's hard for us to say that because our hands are tied. We can't.” 

That kind of student information is private. But, the district’s process for responding to threats is not. 

Consequences and interventions

Wilson says it all starts with a tip. Maybe a parent sends the school district a screenshot of an online post, or a school resource officer reports a concern of their own. 

“Then we immediately start investigating," Wilson said. "And what an investigation may look like initially, it may be just contacting law enforcement to say, ‘Hey, this is what we see’, contacting the principal to say, ‘This is what is out there. Can you tell us a little bit more about this student?’”

Then, law enforcement officials go to the student’s home to speak directly with them and their parents. At the same time, a team of counselors, social workers, psychologists, school resource officers and often, a teacher who knows the student well, are beginning a threat assessment of their own.

They ask parents about whether the student has experienced any major changes in their life, and whether they have access to weapons. They ask the student about those things too, and talk to them about their thoughts and feelings. The team combs through attendance and discipline records and interviews the student’s teachers and anyone else who may have more information. 

From there, they determine a threat level: low, moderate or high. WS/FCS Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Fredricca Stokes says that level determines what goes into a safety plan for that student. 

“For a low-level threat, it could consist of an individual having a check-in and check-out system. They check in in the morning with a trusted adult," Stokes said. "It could be a counselor, it could be a social worker. It could be the school administrator, and then they check out at the end of the day.”

Other options include a referral for school-based mental health therapy or a requirement that the student’s backpack is checked every day. For higher threats, the student may be expelled and sent to an alternative school, like Main Street Academy. Some students also face legal consequences.

At the district level, communicating threats can result in a week’s worth of in-school or out-of-school suspension, in addition to the requirements of the individual student’s safety plan. 

Schools also implement practices aimed at helping students learn to manage conflict and repair harmed relationships. In appropriate situations, Stokes says they’ll sometimes use what’s called a restorative circle, where all the kids involved in the incident come together to talk it over. 

"Very important information is shared about people's feelings and how, you know, what they said they didn't mean to say it, or if they meant to make a threat, or something like that, why? And so we try to bring them back together so that we can get in a good place, that we can move forward," Stokes said.

Districts see an uptick in threats at the local level when a violent incident happens nationally. After the shooting in Georgia, Jonathan Wilson told his team to get ready. 

“And sure enough, it came true to the point that, you know, we had one week where all we did was chase misinformation and posts that were being placed on social media," Wilson said. "Very disruptive to the school, very disruptive to the school district, very disruptive to our law enforcement partners, who are trying to focus on keeping students safe.”

And even though law enforcement officials expect these upticks, they investigate every threat to determine whether or not it’s credible. Social media has made all of this more challenging.

'Your words matter'

Southeast Middle School Principal Stephanie Gentry says it’s common for her to come home, after working all day at school, and receive an email from a teacher or parent with a screenshot of a concerning post online. Then she says, it’s a race against the clock. 

“Do we need to go by the house? Do we need to call the parent? What do we need to do? And then as soon as I get up the next morning, reassess the situation," Gentry said. "Do I need to do a metal detector screening? Do I need to make some phone calls?”

Gentry has worked in public schools for 28 years. She says things were incredibly different when she first started out, before students had access to social media. 

Now, she says, fights can start online and spill over into school. Students can also easily share screenshots of threatening posts, which may or may not be credible, but trigger an investigation regardless. 

The challenge, Gentry says, is getting students to understand the consequences of their actions. 

“We continue to think that the kids don't understand the magnitude of what they choose to get involved in, what they say, what they do, what the implications of that are, the long-term effects that it can have," Gentry said. "And our admin team has always been of the mindset of, ‘We have to put that out there on the table to them.’”

Last month, she held a safety assembly for each grade level all about the seriousness of threats. She told students that their words matter, and listed off examples of the kinds of off-hand remarks and jokes students make that are considered threats. 

“Here's some things we hear you all say," Gentry said. "A lot of times you say it to your friends: ‘I'm going to slap you.’” 

Some of the students in the room started to giggle, roll their eyes or whisper with their friends. But Gentry continued.

“And here's the bigger problem that it turns into sometimes for school," she said. "If you say things like, ‘If y'all, don't leave me alone, I'm going to have my brother come and shoot y'all.’”

That one riled them up. But Gentry warned students that it doesn’t matter if they’re joking or not when they say things like that. If someone hears it and reports it, it’s going to be investigated and punished as a threat — with good reason.

“If you brush it off and say, ‘Nah, he's just kidding. He's just being stupid.’ That's the scary part because you don't 100% know," Gentry said. "And if we're talking about your safety, your friend's safety, our safety, all of us, that is a serious thing, folks, and that's why we're all here openly talking about it.”

As students left the safety assembly and headed home, Gentry said she expected the laughter and the eye rolls. But she’ll continue to have these conversations with them. 

“So it doesn't stop here," she said. "It's an ongoing, everyday tackle.”

According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, there have been 108 incidents of juveniles communicating threats at schools this year alone. At least six juveniles were criminally charged. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.