Paulding County student charged after school threat

PAULDING COUNTY, Ga - A Paulding County student has been charged after investigators say he threatened to "shoot up the school."  

Paulding County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Ashley Henson said the threat was made Wednesday at Moses Middle School. The young man was charged with making terroristic threats.

"There was a situation where he was in one of his classes and made a broad threat to shoot up the school," said Sgt. Henson.

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Brianna Miller is a student at Moses Middle School. She said there was also a "hit list" going around on social media earlier in the week and her name was on it.

"I saw it on Snapchat. I did not think to screenshot it, there was a lot going on. It was really overwhelming, kids were scared," said Miller.

Sgt. Henson said they take every threat seriously and looked into it, but could not find anything related to a "hit list" on social media.

"We did conduct an investigation, at this point we were unable to substantiate anything that there was a hit list," said Sgt. Henson.

Investigators say they weren't aware of anything involving the message on Snapchat until after the arrest. They say it's crucial that if there's any concern of safety in the schools, students need to report it immediately.

"This is a situation where we want to make sure these students know if you see something, say something.  You've got to say it as quickly as you can," said Sgt. Henson.

Some parents, like Brianna's mom, said any threat at their child's school is terrifying. Carol Allen is upset that there was no word of the threat made in the classroom until Thursday when school officials emailed a letter to parents.

"This happened yesterday morning and here it is well over 24 hours later I'm just now being informed there was an incident and my daughter could have been in danger," said Allen.

In the letter to parents, it states "the administration handled an issue that involved a student making verbal threats against other students".

The letter also encourages students who have any concerns about school safety to report it to the Safeschools Alert System, a teacher, a school administrator, or any other adult.

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