Wilson County authorities investigate multiple school threats within 24 hours

WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Wilson County school officials and law enforcement have investigated about half a dozen false school threats since Wednesday morning, one of which led to the arrest of a local teenage girl.

“It’s very disturbing the amount of threats that we’re having to deal with,” said Capt. Scott Moore with the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, a News 2 crew went to Mt. Juliet Middle School after an anonymous tip about a generalized threat circulating on Snapchat sparked a message from the administration about actions being taken as kids started to arrive at school, including what officials called a “soft lockdown.”

“The threat of this all started yesterday morning when a Snapchat post was making the rounds,” Bart Baker, public information officer for Wilson County Schools, said the following day.

Authorities determined the Snapchat threat — which reportedly came from Knox County and was not directed towards Mt. Juliet Middle — was non-credible.

Then, on Wednesday night, a new threat surfaced on TikTok. The post allegedly referenced the threat made that morning, saying, “school threat made idiots panic” and “i mean I could make it happen lol maybe tomorrow or smth (jk)” followed by hashtags for Mt. Juliet Middle and Green Hill High School.

“They should by know that this isn’t funny. We just had that incident happen in Georgia. Emotions are high, and this isn’t going to be tolerated by parents,” said Nicole Hobbs.

Hobbs decided to keep her kids home from school on Thursday, Sept. 12, like many parents. Barker said attendance at both Mt. Juliet Middle and Green Hill High was down significantly following Wednesday night’s threat.

On Thursday morning, the sheriff’s office confirmed an eighth grader from Mt. Juliet Middle was taken into custody in connection with the threat on TikTok. According to Moore, the girl will be charged with making threats of mass violence.

“That’s the charge we’re going to use, and with that, it’s a Class E felony,” Moore said, adding that this charge is used about any time a threat causes fear throughout the schools.

However, around the same time the Mt. Juliet student was arrested, a bomb threat was called in against Barry Tatum Academy in Lebanon, causing the entire school to be evacuated, according to the district. After a thorough sweep of the building by deputies and K-9s, nothing was found.

While authorities will continue to investigate every report of a potential school threat, Moore said it’s tying up resources.

“Not only our SROs, but it uses Patrol, it uses our Criminal Investigations Division; we’ve utilized Homeland Security,” Moore said.

Mt. Juliet High School also went into lockdown Thursday afternoon after someone reportedly thought they overheard comments. The district said the lockdown was brief and ended after an investigation of the building.

A state law passed last year puts a big emphasis on punishment when it comes to threatening mass violence. If a student makes a threat, they could be expelled from the school for one full calendar year.

Nevertheless, a number of school districts around Middle Tennessee have dealt with threats just this week, including threats that led to two other eighth graders at separate Nashville schools being charged. To check out a full list of those local school threats, follow this link .

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