Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry, left, and Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette, right, speak to reporters at a Friday morning press conference. / W.C. Mann
CULLMAN - Itâs been a tough week for some educators and law enforcement personnel in Cullman County, capped off on Friday morning when Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry and County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette in a press conference reported two area high school students were arrested for making terrorist threats. The charges are in connection with incidents on Wednesday involving Vinemont and Good Hope High Schools.Â
On Wednesday, two people using false online accounts posted what were perceived as threats of violence to students at Vinemont High School and Good Hope High School. Â One was posted online, and one was sent through a group text using the app Text Now. Students and parents immediately began contacting officials with the schools, the Cullman County Board of Education (CCBOE) and the Cullman County Sheriffâs Office (CCSO), whose combined personnel worked through the night and school day Thursday to secure the schools, assess the threats and identify those responsible.
Early Thursday morning, Gentry told the community via a Tribune Facebook livestream, âFirst and foremost, I want the citizens to know that your children are safe, and thatâs the main priority. Â As a parent, as a father, you know, thatâs my main priority. Â I want to make sure my kids are safe, your children are safe; because--Iâve said this a million times--our children are our most valuable resource. Â And it does--it infuriates me when we have people that try to harm our children.â
All Cullman city and county schools have resource deputies or officers permanently assigned to be present during school hours Monday through Friday. Â During these incidents, schools have seen a heightened law enforcement presence with extra officers present on campuses countywide.
Good Hope High School student identified and apprehended
By mid-morning on Thursday, CCBOE Superintendent Shane Barnette reported that a Good Hope student had been identified as the source of the threat at that school and had been taken into custody. Â The student is a juvenile male whose name was not released.
The threat at Good Hope was posted on social media Wednesday night.
âWe have that person in custody now,â said Barnette. Â âIt was a young person that made a poor decision. Â He thought he was being funny. Â And I talked to him and his family this morning and he thought--heâd seen other stuff like it on Facebook and other places, and he thought heâd go on there and try to be funny. Â
âWeâve got his attention. Â Itâs not funny. Â Heâs been turned over to authorities, and itâs up to them what they do with him from that standpoint. Â And he has withdrawn from our school system. Â If he decides to come back to our school system, thereâll be punishment from the school systemâs standpoint, but right now, weâre letting the authorities handle that.â
Vinemont High School senior identified and apprehended
On Thursday evening the CCSO arrested Emily Nicole Wilson, 18, who it says issued the threat to Vinemont High School. Â Wilson, a student at Vinemont, told investigators that she was trying to get more time to study for a math test by disrupting the school schedule. Â
On Wednesday night, using an app called TextNow to reach several Vinemont seniors, Wilson posted Thursdayâs date with a gun emoji and the statement â(f**k) all yâall mfrs.â Â
According to Gentry, Wilson was booked into the Cullman County Detention Center and released on bail.
âMiss Wilson, a young girl,â said Gentry, âdidnât really have any issues. Â Sheâs 18 years old and had the forethought of doing something that would give her time to study for a test. Â Now, this is a very serious situation. Â When we make the decision to do something to give us time to take a test--well, guess what? Â The end result is you get arrested and you go to jail for making a terroristic threat. Â
âAnd that is how serious it is today. Â And I think we, as a community, as parents, we need to talk to our children about that. Â We need to talk to them about being responsible, making good decisions, being good leaders, because guess what--now, 48 hours later, we have two children who had various reasons for doing things. Â Well, now their lives have been turned upside down, just the same as our community has been turned upside down for the last 48 hours.â
What is a terrorist threat?
The Alabama Criminal Code, Section 13A-10-15 offers the following definition of a terrorist threat:
(a)âA person commits the crime of making a terrorist threat when he or she threatens by any means to commit any crime of violence or to damage any property by doing any of the following:
(1)âIntentionally or recklessly:
a.âTerrorizing another person.
b.âCausing the disruption of school activities.
c.âCausing the evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or other serious public inconvenience.
(2)âWith the intent to retaliate against any person who:
a.âAttends a judicial or administrative proceeding as a witness or party or produces records, documents, or other objects in a judicial proceeding.
b.âProvides to a law enforcement officer, adult or juvenile probation officer, prosecuting attorney, or judge any information relating to the commission or possible commission of an offense under the laws of this state, of the United States, or a violation of conditions of bail, pretrial release, probation, or parole.
(b)âThe crime of making a terrorist threat is a Class C felony.
In Alabama, a class C felony carries a sentence for adults of from âone year plus one dayâ up to 10 years, and a fine of up to $15,000. Â Sentencing for a juvenile offender is unclear.
Sheriff and superintendent issue warning and appeal
Reflecting on last weekâs tragic school shooting in Florida, the sheriff shared, âAny time you have a school shooting, you have a lot of copycats. Â You have a lot of people that want to elevate the situation or copy what somebody else did. Â And they like to cause mass havoc, you know, and they use social media as a tool to do that . . . Within five minutes, we have an issue that is viral.
âThe main thing I want these kids to know, and anybody that does this, is that this is 2018; things are different. Â If you donât want to go to school, it is a lot better off for you not to go to school, than you to make a post that goes viral, and then weâre going to come and arrest you for making a terroristic threat, because youâve caused a lot of fear and discontent within the community, and thatâs just not good, and thatâs not something that needs to be promoted within these systems.â
At Fridayâs press conference, Barnette noted an all-call he had sent to county school parents Thursday evening, saying:
âI asked three things that I need from them, and one of those is for them to sit down with every one of their children and talk to them about how serious this is. Â This is no longer âHey, this is funnyâ or âHey, weâre gonna get out of classâ or get out of a school day. Â This is serious stuff, so I asked them to have that conversation with their children.
âAnd the second thing Iâve asked families to do is periodically go and review their childrenâs social media. Â Deal with that in your family before it becomes a school issue. Â If they see suggestive stuff in there, threatening things in there, before it goes public, go ahead and address that and deal with it then.
âAnd then the third thing that Iâve asked our families to do is, if somethingâs not truthful or if they donât know that first-hand, donât be going online and continuing those posts or forwarding those posts, because thatâs one of the things that can stall an investigation is when we have a lot of false information thatâs being passed around and stuff, and we donât need that.â
Near the conclusion of the press conference, the superintendent shared, âYoung people are making poor decisions because they donât realize how serious things like this are, and theyâve just really got to think twice before they do something like this.â
This weekâs incidents are not the first of their kind in Cullman County this year. Last week, Fairview High School was on a soft lockdown following online threats that turned out not to be credible.
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