The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source: WLVT
Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:34 PM
Knoxville Police Department Had Difficulties Reaching KCS Security Team After Parents Expressed Concerns Regarding Threat At Holston Middle School
What a KPD sergeant deemed as an "extremely poor approach" to handling a threat, happened just two days after 17 people were killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
At 12:30 a.m. on February 16, investigators heard middle school children talking and snapchatting about a student who had allegedly made threats earlier in the day to "shoot up" Holston Middle School.
Records show that a detective tried to contact a major with the Knox County School Security numerous times, but was not able to reach him. The same major sent the screenshotted snapchat images of a middle school-aged white male with short blonde hair identifying him as the student who allegedly made the threats.
At the same time, a KPD sergeant worked to call Chief Gus Paidousis with Knox County Schools Security, but was also not able to reach him. Another investigator raced to call Knox County School Security dispatch and spoke with a dispatcher who said that the text message alert system normally used in similar incidents was down and had not been working for several weeks. The dispatcher said he had also attempted calling the Knox County Schools on-call representative without an answer, so he sent an email instead. KPD then decided to brief KPD's school resource officer's unit on the situation.
Investigators with KPD went to the student's home and spoke with his mother, who immediately explained she had met with Holston's principal on Feb. 15 about a complaint that her son threatened to bring a gun to school.
The mother commented that her son had never been in trouble at school before and believed that her son was trying to "act cool" when she first heard about the allegations.
Authorities next spoke with the student accused of making the threat, who said he and a fellow seventh grade boy were joking about the Parkland, Fla. shooting when they were overheard by others.
The student gave officers permission to search his room and backpack. Records show that officers confiscated a "semi realistic looking toy revolver" from the middle schooler's bedroom.
School officials told Local 8 News a social media threat claiming that a 12-year-old student would bring a gun to Holston Middle School was found to be false. Reporter Robert Grant spoke to the parents of the boy accused of posting the fake threat, who vowed that the boy was not behind the post. The student's parents said he's scared to be out in public after the post attributed to him went viral. Find a detailed account of what happened from the parents' point of view here.
A sergeant with the Knoxville Police Department expressed his concerns to authorities in an email report following the incident.
"Obviously this is an extremely poor approach to handle a threat of this nature. This is not the first time that we have been notified about these types of threats only to find out that the school system knew several hours prior," the sergeant recounted.
The sergeant voiced that multiple layers of law enforcement should know about the threats on the front end, so they can be investigated immediately to identify and shut down threats.
"I believe that school principals are operating on an outdated threat matrix because by their actions seem to think they have time on their side and additionally, believe that they can handle the issue internally," the sergeant concluded.
A representative with KPD said the deputy chief who oversees school resource officers attempted to set up a meeting with Paidousis prior to the start of school on Feb. 16. They are expected to meet about the issue on Thursday.