Effingham County student arrested for terroristic threats
A 16-year old was arrested in the early morning hours of Sept. 29 after he threatened to harm students at Effingham County High School.
According to the Effingham County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy responded to a concerned parent at 5:42 a.m., Sept. 29, after her daughter expressed concern about attending school because of threats made online.
Although some parts of the police report were redacted, it provides details about the post in a Snapchat group page called Effingham County High School 2025 that read, "Y'all didn't seem to get the memo and a bunch of mfs think it's a (blank) or (blank) but it's neither I'll just handle both of em myself" with a picture of an AR-15-style rifle. Another post in a similar group stated, "school being shot up tmr try and stay home."
According to the report, the individual was “shown the Snapchats and confessed to posting them. He stated he received other texts from other kids that made him mad.”
He was booked and released the same day.
Brian Bailey, public information officer for the sheriff’s department, said that according to the Department of Juvenile Justice it is proper protocol to release a juvenile when it is not an elevated situation.
Parents received an email Thursday morning from ECHS Principal Amie Dickerson, which reads in part, "As a school and a district, we take safety very seriously. I want to take this opportunity to clear up some rumors that a student was found on ECHS’s campus with a gun last Friday. That information is false and incorrect... the student in question was never on the campus of ECHS on Friday. I want to reiterate that the safety of our students and staff are extremely important to us and we take every potential threat seriously.”
“My biggest concern as a parent is the lack of transparency,” said LaKeisha Hamilton, who has a child at the high school. “We don’t know when our children are in harm’s way and that is problematic.”
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Sept. 2022 incident at Effingham County High School
This is not the first scare parents and students have gone through.
During a school-wide lockdown Sept. 7, 2022, the sheriff’s department was notified that multiple guns, including an AR-15 style rifle, were discovered in a high school student’s car.
The discovery was made during a routine search at Effingham County High School where law enforcement found ammunition, a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol and an AR-15 style rifle. The student was charged with carrying a weapon in a school safety zone.
Latrice Williams is a general assignment reporter covering Bryan and Effingham County. She can be reached at lwilliams6@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Effingham County student arrested after being making threats
