GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Hundreds of parents in Gwinnett County want something to be done after threats were made at 13 different schools in recent weeks.
“One time, it won’t just be a threat,” mother Jennifer Carpenter said.
Carpenter said she didn’t take any chances with her son when someone posted threats against Peachtree Ridge High School last week.
“That’s when I had headed down to the school to check my son out. And there were hundreds of other parents doing the same thing,” she told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson.
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Thankfully, none of the online threats turned out to be real, but Gwinnett County Schools police say the felony criminal charges are very real.
“It’s not just a joke out there, and they will be charged criminally,” Gwinnett County Schools Police Chief Tony Lockhard said.
Chief Lockhard says his officers arrested five students for threats made over the past two weeks.
Each threat is treated as legitimate, and each threat ties up resources.
“We’ve seen the resources that we’ve had to pull into the school to make sure that the students are safe to reach out to the other jurisdictions,” Lockhard said.
The police chief says these arrests are a warning to students across the metro Atlanta area.
“It could be a felony, and especially this could be something that will follow them for many, many years going forward,” he said.
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Ann Guzman is a licensed professional counselor for youth with high-risk behavior with Lakeside DBT. She says she hopes the students being disciplined have a counselor to talk to.
“These teens are kind of thriving in the control that’s happening when they see the chaos. And that’s incredibly reinforcing,” Guzman explained. “If there’s always been this thing, stewing, like a need to instill fear, it’s kind of scary to know what the next step could be for that teen.”
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Parents say it’s great students making the threats are being disciplined, but many wonder why their parents aren’t being held more accountable.
“If it’s some kind of pattern or something, you know, then I think that parents should be held responsible,” Carpenter said.
The five teens arrested in Gwinnett County, ages 13-15, will face felony charges.
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