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Multiple Terroristic Threats Involving Area Schools

“In light of the recent tragedy in Florida, I would like to provide some information to the community,” announced Montgomery County Attorney J D Lambright. The County Attorney’s Office has jurisdiction over all Class B and higher offenses committed by children under the age of 17 in Montgomery County, making Lambright’s office the recipient of most student-based school threats around the county.

“Unfortunately, our office has always received two or three threats of violence at local schools each month, but that number has skyrocketed following the February 14 shooting in Florida,” said Lambright. “Even before that incident, our local school districts and police agencies were always quick to contact our office anytime a student made a threat, and our office regularly approved the detention of those juveniles. That vigilance has certainly continued in the wake of the Florida shooting.”

Lambright elaborated on the increase in calls his office has received. “We went from two or three such incidents a month to two or three every school day over the last two weeks. As always, our prosecutors have been authorizing the detention of the students making such threats. There have been over a dozen such cases since February 14. We have had incidents from almost every school district in the county.”
Although Lambright cannot discuss details of any specific juvenile case, he did indicate that the remarks being made have ranged from alarming but non-specific comments like “there is going to be a school shooting” to the very specific threat, “I am going to blow up the school bus.”

Faced with the dramatic increase in such cases, Lambright was cautiously optimistic about the community’s response. “Most importantly, students are speaking up when they hear classmates make threatening remarks. That is the first step in ensuring an appropriate law enforcement response, and Montgomery County police agencies are following up on every report, as they always have.”

Lambright continued, “Once our office receives a call from police and a juvenile suspect is detained, we are taking every measure at our disposal to ensure the community’s safety. First and foremost, we determine whether the juvenile has access to any weapons at home. Most parents are perfectly cooperative and will allow police to enter their home and ascertain whether weapons are present and how they are secured. In the unusual event they are non-cooperative, our Juvenile Court can order such an inspection before contemplating whether to release the child from detention.”

“Another issue we investigate in these cases is the mental health of each juvenile. Here, again, we have found most parents to be quite helpful in providing information about any mental health treatment. Regardless of what information the parents provide, we also request a court-ordered psychological evaluation on each child and seek disciplinary and special education information from the schools to give us as complete a picture as possible. All of that information is presented to the Juvenile Court.”

Lambright ended with an assurance that his office will continue to take all school threats seriously. “There are only two individuals who have been serving Montgomery County as felony prosecutors for 20 or more years, and one of them is the chief of our juvenile prosecution division. Where the facts warrant removing a juvenile from the community and placing that child in a secure facility, the County Attorney’s Office has the expertise needed to accomplish it.”

From the Montgomery County Attorney’s Office

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