Law enforcement and Elmore County Schools are investigating multiple threats from the last two days.
Schools of two different Elmore County communities received threats Sunday evening. On Tuesday morning a student on a school bus in Millbrook called 911 to report a gun on the bus.
None of the threats had any real substance, but it forced law enforcement and school administrators to treat them as real.
Three students have been identified as being a part of the social media threats — two in the Coosada and Millbrook area and one in the Eclectic area.
“We sat down with a commenter on the post in the Millbrook community (Sunday) night,” Elmore County Schools superintendent Richard Dennis said.
Millbrook police chief P.K. Johnson said his department, in particular school resource officer Cpl. Kristen White, performed extremely well when the department first became aware of the threat on social media about 10 p.m. Sunday night.
“There were making threats towards students at all our local schools to include Coosada Elementary, Millbrook Middle and Stanhope Elmore,” Johnson said. “They directed violence not only at the school but at school buses.”
By 10:45 p.m. law enforcement was speaking with a 12-year-old commenter on the post.
“She did not create the post but commented on it making threatening statements,” Johnson said. “We had her in custody Sunday night.”
With the help of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Fusion Center.
“They helped us track the computers in this incident,” Johnson said.
Authorities located the 12-year-old who created the original post Monday afternoon and took her into custody.
Both are facing petitions in Elmore County Juvenile Court of making terroristic threats. If charged as adults and found guilty they would face a prison sentence between a one year and day up to 10 years and fine up to $15,000.
“Juveniles are treated differently than adults,” Johnson said. “I can assure you we have been in contact with the judicial system. They are going to be dealt with. They will be treated accordingly.”
Dennis said school administrators were dealing with a Elmore County High School student as the person who made the threat to Eclectic schools.
“They were all made on social media,” Dennis said.
Dennis explained the students face Class III discipline issues and the punishment could be one year in alternative school or expulsion. He also expects criminal proceedings in juvenile court as the three students are minors.
No gun on school bus Tuesday
Millbrook police acted again Tuesday morning when a call to 911 was made describing a gun on a school bus.
“We have no choice but to stop the bus,” Johnson said. “That was the backup on traffic on Main Street (Tuesday) morning.”
Police searched the bus and found no gun.
Johnson said Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. the incident was still under investigation but there was a high probability the student who made the call would likely be prosecuted in juvenile court.
Johnson said any threat made anywhere will be harshly dealt with. Just the threats in Millbrook Sunday resulted in more than 1,200 student absences in the Millbrook schools, according to Johnson.
“If you disrupt our schools, it is not going to be treated like a harmless prank,” Johnson said. “We are going to treat it like the serious offense that it is.”
