The following is an open letter from Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd:
Dear Friend,
We’re in a brand-new the school year, and you’ve probably seen in the news that another horrific school shooting occurred in Georgia. My team is already reviewing the details of what happened to help us keep our children in Polk County safe.
We are hyper vigilant and focused on keeping our schoolchildren safe. Our Safe Schools Division has tools and resources to proactively seek out and respond to any hint of a threat, and to immediately react when a threat is perceived. We work hand-in-glove with Polk County Public Schools and our law enforcement partners to ensure that school safety is our top priority here in Polk.
If you watched the news conference we had this week, you know that we arrested a high school football player who threatened to commit a mass shooting at George Jenkins High School. Our deputies treated the information we received seriously and quickly. We immediately placed the school on heightened security, restricting access, sheltered the students in place, and conducted a thorough search to insure the safety of all students and staff. We found the responsible teen, pulled him out of school, and arrested him.
He did not have a firearm. His call was false, fortunately. But we treated it as real, as we should have.
This school year we’ve already made several arrests of juveniles who made bad choices to threaten to hurt someone or commit violence at a school either via a phone call, text message, or social media message. These calls were swiftly handled by our law enforcement and school professionals.
I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it – in this day and age where we are all focused on preventing violence from occurring in our schools, words matter. There is no longer any leeway given to anyone who threatens to shoot up a school, to place a bomb in a school, or to hurt anyone in a school. The mere threat will land you in jail, regardless of your age.
Parents, I am asking you to be the first line of defense when it comes to keeping kids safe. Many children over the age of 10 have some sort of mobile or online device, whether it’s a cell phone, iPad, or gaming device. Children are being raised to use those devices as a major form of communication, but if they are not taught at an early age that what they send or transmit to someone else can result in them being charged with a crime, the consequences can be harsh.
Don’t let your child become an example of what not to do. Monitor what they’re doing online. Report suspicious activity. And please, please coach your kids that threatening words matter – and they can land you in jail.
Grady Judd, Sheriff
