The majority of school threats have come through social media, and an increasing number had previously been reported and debunked, according to the TN Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Tennessee Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security investigated 125 school threats last week alone, and that’s just the number reported to the state.
Tennessee Homeland Security agents have investigated 321 reports of school threats from Aug. 1 to Sept. 14., according to the deputy commissioner of Homeland Security, Greg Mays. However, the actual number of threats made against TN schools is likely much higher because not every threat is reported to the state.
Mays told News 2, social media has made it easier to make school threats and repost ones that were previously debunked, which has become a recent trend in Tennessee and beyond.
“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,” Mays said. “We’re working on ways to quickly identify duplicate threats like that and tamp down the anxiety in the community.”
In 2023, the General Assembly approved Gov. Bill Lee’s funding request to place a Homeland Security agent in every county in Tennessee, which has allowed the state to become more actively involved in school threat investigations.
According to Mays, local law enforcement agencies typically lead investigations into school threats and Homeland Security agents assist with legal processes for electronic searches, interviews, behavioral-based threat assessments, and more to determine whether the individual who made the threat is capable and intends to carry it out.
“We need to look at a lot of factors, 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,” Mays said.
The TN Department of Safety and Homeland Security has uncovered a “handful” of credible threats through agents’ investigations, according to Mays. Many of the remaining threats made turned out to be hoaxes and jokes, which is a growing problem across the country.
“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,” Mays said. “But 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.”
It is now a felony to make a threat of mass violence against a school in Tennessee, thanks to a bill lawmakers passed during the 2024 legislative session. Multiple students have been arrested this year under the state statute.
Mays said a 2021 national study found 100% of credible school threats were stopped either because the perspective shooter told an individual who then reported it to law enforcement, or because an individual reported concerning behavior.
You can anonymously report a school threat and/or concerning behavior through the SafeTN app, which can be downloaded by clicking here, or by calling the TN Homeland Security’s threat assessment center at (615) 532-7825. You can also call your local law enforcement agency.