By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
The East Carter High School community was shaken by two threats of violence last week.
The first occurred on Wednesday when, according to communications from the Kentucky State Police (KSP), their offices were contacted by the FBI after that agency monitored a threatening communication directed at the high school. After being informed of the threat to the school the KSP investigated and were able to identify and make contact with the juvenile. During the course of their interview with the juvenile, the KSP said, he “admitted to making the threat on a social media application.”
The KSP release did not identify the social media app, but other law enforcement sources identified it as Snapchat or a similar messaging application.
“As a result,” the KSP release stated, “the juvenile was arrested… (and) later transported to the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center and charged with Terroristic Threatening 2nd Degree.”
KSP also increased their presence around the school following the incident, among other protective measures.
On Thursday a second juvenile learned the consequences of testing those protective measures when the school’s internet filter system detected keywords related to a copycat threat and alerted school personnel, including the school system police force. Carter County School District police chief R.D. Porter explained that the student was inside the school at the time, and the police were able to respond immediately. Even though the student had gone through the metal detectors with other students that morning, Porter said, and they knew he didn’t bring any weapons in at that time, they still took the potential threat seriously.
So did the district. In a social media post about the second incident the district noted, “While the threat was not credible, and at no time were students in danger, the district plans to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.” They encouraged parents to discuss the consequences of terroristic threatening with their children, and supplied parents with letters related to the law and the possible penalties for violating it.
Porter said that while they were on heightened alert that day, they followed the same safety procedures they do every day.
“As a police officer, our number one job is to provide safety and security for the kids, faculty, and staff of the building. So, we participate in the early morning security checks at the metal detectors,” Porter said. He explained the procedure, which includes emptying pockets and handing over backpacks and other bags to be checked by staff before walking through the metal detector. If the metal detector goes off, Porter explained, it shows the area of the body where the alert was triggered via lights on the outside of the device. Porter can then use a wand to determine what is causing that alert – be it a belt or steel toed boots, or something the student shouldn’t have.
He said they also patrol the halls and facilities throughout the day, and receive alerts on their cell phones if students make inappropriate search queries using their school issued Chromebooks.
“At every school in the county we have a program called Lightspeed, and what Lightspeed does is it flags – if you’re using the school internet – it flags anything (related to) certain keywords; violence, threats, self-harm, explicit (content).”
He said sometimes students might have legitimate reasons for accessing that content, for instance researching a term paper. In those instances, he said, faculty can supply notes within the app explaining why students are accessing the content. But, he said, they still get an alert on every search that meets the preset filtering criteria.
He gave an example of a student who was doing research on frontier battles, which included wording about killings and other acts of violence. He said in that case it was easy to tell from the context they were doing historical research.
But on Thursday that was not the case.
“Myself, Dr. (Corey) Gee the principal, and Mr. Clark, Matt Clark, the assistant principal, were down the hallway getting ready to do the first run of vocational school scans at around 10:30 (the scans they do whenever the students have left and re-enter the building) and we all three got notifications on our watches or phones,” Porter said.
When they brought up the alert, he said, it highlighted the copy-cat threat, as well as the student workstation that made it and where they were at the moment.
“At that point in time, Mr. Clark and I immediately came down and got the student out, got our questioning, and took the student into custody,” Porter said.
While they try to take every opportunity to educate students about the seriousness of making these types of threats, as well as intercede before situations escalate, he said violence was “never something to joke about.” In other situations, though, they try to avoid legal action.
“We have teen court here to try and lead them in the right direction. We’re mentors. We work off of the SRO (school resource officer) triad concept,” he explained, which splits their time between law enforcement, law related counseling or mentoring, and law related education – a portion that Porter said he wished made up more of the total.
He said he believed that increasing awareness of the consequences of making and following through on threats “would make a difference” but he said it was hard to quantify how much of a difference.
“It’s like a gas tank,” he said. “They put signs on it that say, ‘Flammable’ (maybe) people don’t smoke around it. So, it’s the same scenario. I think the more you can teach them, the better off you are. Will it prevent everything? Absolutely not. But it does make them think.”
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
