One bill educators said they’re working with lawmakers on would allow the state to place students who make credible school threats in holding cells in juvenile detention facilities for up to three days.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Classrooms are meant for lessons, not lockdowns, but after a wave of school threats across Tennessee, some educators hope to work with lawmakers to try to fix the problem through potential legislation involving temporary holding cells for students who make credible threats.
The TN Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security has investigated more than 320 school threats so far this year, with 125 threats occurring in one week. Those numbers only include the threats reported to the department.
J.C. Bowman, executive director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee told News 2 school threats are negatively impacting students, staff, and communities.
“I talked to a teacher last week who was both angry and crying at the same time,” Bowman said. “It’s just constant. She said the mental drain on them, constantly being disrupted, it’s taking its toll on teachers and students.”
Bowman and other educators plan to meet with lawmakers this week to propose ideas for potential legislation, including a bill to allow the state to place students who make credible school threats in holding cells in juvenile detention facilities for up to three days to protect other students and school staff. The child could also receive mental health counseling and other services if needed, Bowman added. Parents could then be required to reimburse the state for the holding costs.
“One of the problems we see is defining what a credible threat is,” Bowman said. “We want to make sure we’re fair to both the student, but we also want to make sure that if it’s a credible threat, we take that student out of the situation so the other students have the opportunity to learn.”
Bowman told News 2 there isn’t one simple fix to the problem. He also suggested law enforcement consider identifying students charged with a felony for making threats of mass violence against schools, within reason.
“We can’t treat all threats equally,” Bowman said. “Some kid points a finger at a teacher or principal, the kid was horse playing, he should be punished accordingly for that. Should he be expelled from school, should he be in serious trouble, should he have a felony charge potentially hanging over him? Probably not, and I wouldn’t be for that. But a kid who has the means, access, and availability to weapons and clearly could do damage,” he continued. “If it is a credible threat, we need to take action.”
Funding the school threat holding cell bill could be a potential roadblock. However, Bowman argues a single school threat can cost a government tens of thousands of dollars depending on the organizations involved, so the proposal could end up saving money in the long run.
“Principals, superintendents, teachers, students missing learning time, police officers, healthcare professionals, everything, it is costing a lot of money for this,” Bowman said. “We’ve got to say enough is enough and there are consequences for it.”
“It’s a handful of kids who are making these problems and continuing to do it. Even good kids can make mistakes, but what ends up happening is the problem escalates, it gets in and it takes over a community.”