Another lawsuit challenges use of ‘threats of mass violence’ law to arrest students in school

Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin, Tenn. (Photo: John Partipilo)

A Williamson County family is suing the county board of education and district attorney, alleging they falsely accused and prosecuted their teenage son for making threats of mass violence at school.

The teen, identified in court filings as “C.W.,” was a junior at Independence High School last year when he was handcuffed and arrested at school, strip-searched and put in solitary confinement in juvenile detention, then placed in an alternative school and referred for psychiatric care.

The teen, court filings said, was accused of raising his hand in a “Hitler salute” and saying “something about North Korea” in chemistry class by the school’s principal, the lawsuit said.

When pressed by C.W.’s parents, the principal “offered no evidence from anyone who witnessed him make such a gesture,” including the chemistry teacher, the suit said.

A spokesperson for Williamson County Schools declined to comment on pending litigation; the district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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It is at least the second legal challenge involving a so-called zero tolerance law passed last year by the Tennessee legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee in the weeks after a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville claimed the lives of three children and three adults.

In June, the families of a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy arrested at school and expelled in separate and unrelated incidents jointly filed suit against Williamson County and Gov. Bill Lee to challenge the application of the zero tolerance law.

The law requires districts to expel students for one year if they have been found to have made threats of mass violence.

It defines threats as speech that a reasonable person could conclude would lead to serious bodily injury or the death of two or more people.

Advocates who fought against the law called it an overreaction to mass school shootings. They have also criticized the law’s language as so vague as to enmesh kids who do not intend to make threats, or carry out acts, of violence — a claim echoed in the lawsuit filed on C.W.’s behalf.

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“The word ‘threat’ is not defined,” in Tennessee law, the lawsuit notes. “The lack of an intent element leaves anyone who says anything that can be even remotely construed as a ‘threat’ vulnerable to criminal and other consequences.”

The lawsuit cites an unnamed court-appointed psychiatrist, who interviewed the teen in December, and appeared to suggest the law was being applied over-broadly in schools.

“The psychiatrist stated that he had conducted similar interviews with 50 students since school started in the fall of 2023, and none of these students, including C.W., should have been arrested,” the suit said.

Williamson County Schools did not respond to a request made Tuesday for the number of students referred for arrest for making mass violence threats in the 2023-2024 school year.

C.W.’s parents, Julie and Scott Wernert, are seeking $300,000 in compensatory damages in the suit, filed in federal court in Nashville.