MSCS Superintendent, Governor Lee address school threats
by: Jessica Knox, Shay Simon, Alan Selph
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Another Memphis Shelby County School was threatened with a possible school shooting on Thursday, according to reports.
More than 120 school threats were reported last week across Tennessee. Kingsbury High School was one of the schools listed on a social media post with guns.
Governor Bill Lee and Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins were at Kingsbury Career and Technology Center on Thursday, in a planned visit.
While there, they addressed the acts of violence toward the schools.
Right now local and federal agencies are investigating who is behind each of these school threats. But leaders say they are not taking this lightly and the consequences go beyond breaking school rules.
“It is not light-hearted that we take this,” said Dr. Marie Feagins, Superintendent of Memphis Shelby County Schools.
“It’s important that we have meaningful conversations around school safety,” said Governor Bill Lee.
This is the second day in a row Memphis Shelby County Schools have had a threat of mass violence.
“It became ten high schools then 15 schools then it spread across the city and that’s when we activated lockdown on all campuses,” Dr. Feagins said.
Wednesday Police Chief CJ Davis confirmed three Whitehaven high school students were detained and taken in for questioning. But law enforcement leaders say there could be more arrests to come.
“There are consequences, there are many laws that can be broken doing these threats and making these threats. There were a lot of resources deployed today,” said Floyd Bonner, Shelby County Sheriff.
Memphis Police say threats of violence against a school are a class E felony offense. Making it clear that those responsible will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In our state, Class E felonies carry up to six years in prison.
“Conversations were held between myself, our security, and officers within the district, Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security, FBI, and the list goes on and so this a combination and a partnership of federal and local authorities to ensure that we the type of safety the level of calm to every degree possible,” Dr. Feagins said.
Students were not put on lockdown Thursday.