A 15-year-old Newton County boy was arrested Tuesday after authorities say he posted social media threats aimed at a classmate at Newton College and Career Academy. The teen is facing two felony charges: terroristic threats and acts, and interfering with school operations, according to the sheriff’s office. The case has been sent to juvenile court.
Investigation and charges
Investigators tracked the online posts back to the student and arrested him on the felony counts, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. In a Facebook post on the Newton County Sheriff’s Office page, Sheriff Ezell Brown wrote that “any threats or acts of violence targeting students, staff or the school system will not be tolerated, and those responsible will be held accountable.” He also thanked the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for assisting in the probe.
School and local context
Newton College and Career Academy, where the student is enrolled, is a district career-and-technical campus in Covington, according to the school’s website. Local reporting shows this is not the first time Newton County has dealt with social media threats involving students. Multiple juveniles have previously been arrested on terroristic-threat charges in similar cases, according to The Covington News, highlighting how quickly school officials and law enforcement tend to move when online threats surface.
What the law says
Under Georgia law, terroristic threats and acts can include threats made with the purpose of terrorizing others or causing evacuations, with penalties that vary depending on the nature of the threat. The statute is codified at Georgia Code § 16-11-37.
What’s next
The sheriff’s office said the case will proceed through the juvenile system and declined to release the student’s name because of his age. Sheriff Brown urged parents and students to take online threats seriously and to cooperate with investigators, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
