Sullivan County Schools threats found not credible, parents still concerned

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) – On Thursday, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office released a news release regarding social media threats against schools in Sullivan County and nearby areas. The sheriff’s office investigated the threats and found they were not credible. However, many concerned parents pulled their children out of class out of precaution.

Katlyn Shiplett is the mother of two Sullivan County students who attend Mary Hughes Elementary School. She said she wanted to pull her daughters from school, but that it was difficult due to shared custody with their father.

“He works early in the morning, so he cannot do home schooling,” Shiplett said. “I don’t work until one. So I could do it [from] like eight to one and go to work comfortably. But with that kind of schedule, we can’t do that. And I mean, it’s sad that I have to choose my job or my kids safety.”

One of Shiplett’s daughters said hearing of these threats makes her uneasy.

“It would shoot all of my friends and it would be sad, everyone would miss all of their friends,” Quinn Malone, Shiplett’s daughter and 2nd grader at Mary Hughes, said.

Shiplettt believes truancy shouldn’t be an issue with school threat situations.

“We should be able to pull our kids out without having to pull a day in jail if our kids are missing too much school,” Shiplett said. “Like we’re not doing this because we don’t want our kids to learn. We’re doing this to literally keep them safe.”

Sullivan County Director of Schools Chuck Carter said attendance has been down these past few days and he’s received numerous calls from concerned parents. He said although the threats aren’t viable, both local authorities and The Department of Homeland Security have investigated them.

“Have had mentions of some of our schools, but those have been investigated and have been proven to have no viable threat for our schools in particular,” Carter said. “We’re still taking those seriously. We investigate every threat that’s presented to us.”

Carter said students can have up to five excused absences and if parents choose to pull their child, that would count towards those. However, Carter said since the threats are not viable he feels like students will be safe at school.

“We have a safe environment,” Carter said. “We have SRO officers in every building. The exterior doors are locked, interior doors of classrooms are as a rule, locked. We have a lot of safety precautions in line.”

Carter added that law enforcement presence is heightened at the schools.

Sullivan County Schools also received a Public School Security Grant from the state to help install more cameras and implement other safety measures.

Carter said a new security alert system is currently being installed. He said it’s the same one that was used in the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia.

“They really credited that as helping decrease the amount of time, which is so critically important and led to fewer casualties in that instance,” Carter said. “So we feel very excited to get this in our school system and feel like it’s a big safety improvement that we’ll add.”

Shiplett believes more protocols should be in place.

“What I think they should do is have metal detectors at every single school around the district, just like they do in bigger cities,” Shiplett said. “I feel like if you have metal detectors at the front of the school, you will know what people are coming in and out with, whether it’s a pocket knife or a gun.”

“And also, I think they should maybe have better resources for kids for therapy, because you don’t know what those kids that are doing this is going home to that’s affecting them like that. To be able to have that mindset of going to a school and doing such a thing.”

Shiplett was still concerned after hearing the threats were not credible, because of similar real threats in the area.

“I heard about the John Battle thing that happened and that kid got arrested. And it honestly, as a mother, it terrified me. Because that’s a county school. And it worries me that it’s hitting the county. Cities, it happens, but it’s unheard of in this area.”

Carter said the school system will work on better communicating with parents.

“We are working with the sheriff’s department on any kind of messaging or training that our students and staff and parents and community can receive,” Carter said. “So that is on the table for us to get accomplished.”

Carter urges the public to report any threat they may find immediately to authorities. He also said not to circulate the posts online.

“The incidents where students are being charged and others are being charged because they’re inciting fear with reposting. So it’s so critically important not to do that, but to get it to the authorities so we can take care of it as quickly as possible.”

Carter said the school board will have a closed session meeting next month to go over school safety.

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