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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Over the span of only one week, last week to be specific, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security reported to the state that they investigated a total of 125 school threats.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Homeland Security, Greg Mays, a total of 321 reports of school threats have been investigated by Tennessee Homeland Security agents between August 1st and September 14th of this year.
However, the real number of these threats may be even higher since not every threat made against schools in Tennessee is reported to the state.
In communication with News 2, Mays explained how social media seems to have increased the number of threats the department investigates because posted threats that have already been investigated in one area of the state are being copied, pasted and posted in other areas of the state.
“Something will come up on social media, it will be investigated and determined not credible, and then it will be seen by someone in another part of the state, cut, pasted, posted, and here we go again,” stated Mays. “We’re working on ways to quickly identify duplicate threats like that and tamp down the anxiety in the community.”
Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly approved the funding for Gov. Bill Lee’s (R-TN) request to place a Homeland Security agent in every county across the state of Tennessee.
This has allowed the department to be more present in Tennessee’s various school communities when threats like this do come through.
Mays explained that typically, local law enforcement agencies lead these investigations into school threats and Homeland Security agents help by conducting interviews, behavioral-based threat investigations and legal processes for electronic searches, among other things to determine whether the person making the threat intends to do so and is actually capable of doing so.
“We need to look at a lot of factors,” said Mays, “from the subject’s environmental and social functioning, whether they have a grievance, a lot of what might be going on in their home life; what makes them tick so to speak.”
According to Mays, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security has uncovered only a “handful” of credible school threats throughout their investigations and many other threats turn out to be “hoaxes” and “jokes.”
The deputy commissioner said that he doesn’t want the possibility of a threat being a “hoax” or a “joke” to discourage people from reporting school threats to his department though.
“I certainly don’t want to discourage reporting. I’ve often said the threat I’m concerned the most about is the one I don’t know about,” stated Mays. “I would encourage people to stop the hoaxes, stop the jokes. We’re encountering way too many threats that turn out to be a ‘joke’ or a kid doesn’t want to take his math test or wants the day out of school.”
Mays added that a 2021 national study found 100% of credible school threats were able to be stopped because the perspective shooter told someone else who then reported it to law enforcement, or because someone reported concerning behavior.
On July 1st of 2023, a new zero tolerance law went into effect.
HB0340/SB0190 as enacted, “requires a student to be considered in violation of a zero tolerance offense and be expelled for not less than one calendar year, except that a director of schools may modify such expulsion on a case-by-case basis, for threatening mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity.”
On May 1st of this year, an additional law went into effect regarding zero tolerance.
HB2487/SB2931 as enacted, “conditions the expulsion of a student for committing the zero tolerance offense of threatening mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity to threats of mass violence determined to be valid based on the results of a threat assessment; requires directors of schools and heads of public charter schools to report threats of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity made by a student that are determined, based on the results of a threat assessment, to be valid”
Tennesseans can anonymously report school threats and/concerning behaviors via the SafeTN app or by calling the Tennessee Homeland Security threat assessment center at (615) 532-7825.
These reports can also be made to a local law enforcement agency.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
