by Jeanni Ritchie
On September 4, 2024, a mass shooting occurred at Apalachee High School in Georgia. The suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, shot 11 people. Two students and two teachers were killed, while nine others were injured. The teen has been charged as an adult, and both of his estranged parents have been charged as well. Details of his home life are disturbing with a recent indictment handed down against his mother for taping her own mother to a chair before stealing her car and driving to confront her ex-husband in 2023.
While this undoubtedly reveals an unstable home life and a need for intervention, it does not give children a free pass into a life of crime.
Since the latest school shooting there has been a rash of fake threats across the nation. Students prank call for fun, or perhaps to get out of class, but in today’s society, each threat must be taken seriously, causing needless anxiety for students and parents already on edge and wasting valuable resources for first responders.
Unlike days past, however, it is easier to track down the guilty parties and hold them accountable.
A recent threat to Northwood High School in Lena had parents on edge. As one parent reported, her daughter sent a message from her phone. “I don’t want to scare you but we are on lockdown. And I’m scared so please don’t be scared.”
To further add to the panic, parents weren’t alerted by the school and only received info when UrbanCast began reporting live from the school two hours later. Parents began checking their kids out immediately, frustrated with the lack of communication and fearful that their child’s school would be the site of the next mass shooting.
We used to live in the day of “it won’t happen to me” but now fear that we WILL be next, especially in a town with escalating crime rates.
We can’t afford to let juveniles get away with felonious fake threats in today’s society.
In Louisiana, minors are protected from having their names or photos released even when they commit felonies.
They ought to consider taking a page from Florida’s Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood who said he would start releasing the mug shots of students who are arrested for making school shooting threats.
True to his word, two teenagers and an 11-year-old child were taken into custody last month and were escorted to jail with a camera following every move.
“Every time we make an arrest, your kids’ photo is going to be put out there and I’m gonna perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to.”
The 11-year-old Creekside Middle School student in custody allegedly threatened to commit a school shooting and had a “written list of people he claimed he would kill,” authorities said.
We can’t turn a blind eye to those threats anymore. Kids must be held accountable.
Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.
