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16-year-old student accused of posting threats targeting Gwinnett high school charged

16-year-old student accused of posting threats targeting Gwinnett high school charged

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A 16-year-old student has been arrested after police say she made threats towards a school online.

Bernard Watson, Gwinnett Public School District Director of Media Relations, told Channel 2 Action News that the threats were made towards South Gwinnett High School in Snellville last Thursday.

“We have police officers at the school, we had additional police presence at the school, and it is safe for them to go to school each and every day,” Watson said.

Authorities said the student posted a picture of a gun and wrote, “Thursday 9:30 is gonna be professional.”

Watson said the school district’s police department quickly determined the threat was not credible.

The student, whose identity has not been released, has been charged with making terroristic threats.

This is not the first threat to be made at a Gwinnett County high school this month.

Watson also confirmed rumors of threats being made towards Discovery High School after an incident at a football game involving fireworks.

Principal Marci Sledge addressed the rumors in a letter to the Discovery High School community:

“We all share the safety of students and staff as a top priority. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know that we are aware of chatter and video circulating on social media regarding threats to our school. I want to reassure you that we are taking this situation seriously. Our School Resource Officers (SRO), in conjunction with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, are actively investigating the source of the threats and who is responsible. At this point, authorities have found no evidence that the threats are credible. To be clear, police say your student is safe and not in any danger.”

District leaders have not said if anyone was charged in connection to the incident.

“Students and adults need to understand that when they make these types of threats, they make poor decisions like this, there are consequences,” Watson said. “And these consequences can be criminal charges as well as school disciplinary charges.”