NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A bill that would make it a felony to make a threat against a school in Tennessee was presented on the House floor Monday, the same day two Middle Tennessee schools canceled classes due to a threat.
Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), sponsor of House Bill 2198 drafted the bill after his son’s school went on lockdown due to a threat last September.
“I get to the school that day after the threat, there’s police helicopters overhead, probably at least 200 officers there, and the tactical SWAT team was about to go in and clear room to room,” Mitchell said. “As a parent, if you get those text messages from your child who is hiding in a storage room closet saying, ‘My teacher has a hammer and we have scissors. We’re ready,’ it would make a difference to you.”
HB2198 would increase the penalty for making a school threat in Tennessee from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony, which would carry a punishment of at least one year in prison.
“Someone makes a threat like that; they sit there for a year. Maybe they won’t do it again, and I know others seeing that knowing that we mean business and we’ll prosecute them won’t do it as well,” Mitchell said.
The bill was presented on the House floor Monday, the same day two Middle TN schools canceled classes due to a threat. According to a school spokesperson for Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA), the school received a message from an individual who “used disconcerting language towards the safety of our campus,” on Sunday, March 24. Nearby, Currey Ingram Academy also canceled classes out of an abundance of caution due to their proximity to CPA.
Threats like these are on the rise, according to the most recent Tennessee Safe Schools report. For example, bomb threats against schools increased from 44 threats during the 2021-2022 school year to 84 threats the following school year, according to the report.
The president of the National Association of School Resource Officers and assistant chief of the Golden Valley Police Department near Minneapolis, Rudy Perez told News 2 school threats generally come in four ways: environmental, internal, external, and cyber threats, including swatting or ransomware.
Perez grew familiar with the consequences threats can have on schools as the detective in charge when a threat came to a school district in Los Angeles and cost the district $80 million.
“We have kids not going to school, kids not feeling safe when they return to school, and the impact of law enforcement officers that have to walk the campus. I think that was one of the biggest walk-throughs of a school district. Law enforcement had to walk each campus and make sure that we didn’t see anything that was out of the ordinary or maybe a bomb. It was very challenging to go through that,” Perez said. “But especially, you can’t quantify the numbers of hours of the educational process lost.”
Perez encourages parents to get involved and report anything that seems suspicious to help prevent school threats. He also said Tennessee parents can take advantage of resources offered by the Tennessee School Resource Officers Association.
The threat made against CPA remains under investigation.
The bill was heard before the full House of Representatives on Monday afternoon. It sailed through the House, 90-0-5, with Democratic Reps. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville), Bob Freeman (D-Nashville), Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), Justin Jones (D-Nashville), and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) with the Present Not Voting.
Lundberg’s Senate version of the bill must still face the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, March 26, before it makes its way to the full floor.
