Willis High School Rattled by Gun and Shooting Threat in Back-to-Back Days

A 15-year-old Willis High School student is facing a terroristic threat charge after allegedly telling classmates in a classroom that they planned to shoot other students, the latest jolt to a campus that had already seen a loaded gun pulled from a student's backpack just a day earlier. Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies took the teen into custody and booked them into the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center, marking the second security incident at the high school in as many days.

According to Click2Houston, deputies responded immediately after being notified of the alleged threat, which the student is accused of making Thursday. The outlet reports the arrest came the same day the threat was made, and the student now faces a charge of making a terroristic threat. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said all threats will be taken seriously, whether they are spoken, written, posted online, or passed off as a joke — each can still result in criminal charges, the office said.

The classroom threat followed a separate scare just a day earlier, on Wednesday, when an assistant principal discovered a loaded firearm inside a 14-year-old female student's backpack. As reported by KHOU 11, the discovery happened during a routine bathroom check for students skipping class, and initial district communications indicated the student claimed she did not know the gun was in her bag and that no active threat had been made. Deputies took that student into custody as well.

What Texas Law Says About Each Case

The two incidents carry distinct legal weight under Texas law. Carrying a firearm onto a public school campus is a third-degree felony under Texas Penal Code § 46.03, according to the Texas School Safety Center, with the state's 2021 permitless carry law explicitly preserving that ban inside educational facilities. Making a terroristic threat, meanwhile, falls under Texas Penal Code § 22.07 and can range from a Class B misdemeanor up to a third-degree felony depending on whether it causes fear of serious bodily injury or disrupts a public institution like a school, per legal reference site FindLaw.

Deputies were positioned to respond quickly to both incidents because Willis ISD contracts its campus security through the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, which staffs dedicated School Resource Officers across district campuses, according to the Willis Independent School District. The district switched its SRO contract from the Precinct 1 Constable's Office to the Sheriff's Office in April 2023 and added five more officers that October, Community Impact has reported. That buildout reflects Texas House Bill 3, passed after the 2022 Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, which requires every public school campus in the state to have at least one armed security officer on duty during school hours.

A District That Has Seen This Before

This isn't the first time a Willis ISD student has faced a felony over threats against schools. In September 2024, a 13-year-old at Lynn Lucas Middle School was charged with a felony for making terroristic threats via Snapchat, a case Hoodline previously reported that also prompted heavier law enforcement presence across district campuses. Montgomery County authorities have also shown a pattern of moving fast on any school gun claim, even false ones — in April, deputies arrested a 39-year-old parent who fabricated a report that a Conroe High School student had a gun on campus, simply to avoid a speeding ticket.

Statewide, Willis ISD's fully staffed SRO model stands out. Texas Education Agency reporting from late 2024 found that only about 45% of Texas public school campuses were able to fully comply with HB 3's armed-officer mandate, largely due to funding and staffing shortages, according to Red River Radio. School districts receive just $15,000 per campus and $10 per student under the state's safety allotments, an amount local leaders describe as insufficient. Willis ISD's enrollment reached 2,809 students during the 2024–2025 school year, according to Wikipedia, in a district experiencing enough residential growth that demographers project total enrollment could approach 19,000 students by 2033.

Just weeks before this week's incidents, Willis ISD and Montgomery County had executed an amendment to their interlocal law enforcement agreement, extending supplemental School Resource Officer coverage through September. That agreement between the county and district for supplemental law enforcement dates back to November 2003.

Officials Ask Families to Talk and to Report

Authorities are urging parents to talk with their children about the consequences of making threats against schools, and are encouraging students, parents, and residents to report threats directly to law enforcement or school officials rather than sharing unverified posts online. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office can be reached at 936-538-5900.