Alabama schools beset by threats as students return

Chaos erupted at Foley High School Thursday when a teacher heard a rumor about a weapon on campus and initiated the school’s lockdown procedure.

Law enforcement arrived minutes later but it took hours to clear up the situation, with no clear origin of the rumor at this point.

Foley is just one of numerous incidents that have taken place at schools across the state in recent weeks, particularly in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Georgia last week.

Law enforcement arrested a student at Clay-Chalkville High School who brought a gun onto the school campus, although officials say the student did not brandish the weapon or threaten anyone with it.

Several juveniles have been arrested in recent days in connection to threats at Montgomery Public Schools including a 14-year-old boy, two 13-year-old boys and an 11-year-old girl. 

School resource officers in Birmingham were alerted Tuesday to an online comment threatening to carry out shooting at Huffman High School and Huffman Middle School. A 14-year-old male student has been expelled and charged with first-degree making a terrorist threat in that incident.

“What we are doing as a law enforcement community, we are showing them whether you are doing it or attention or as a serious threat, we take them all seriously and we’re going to use all available resources regardless of your intent,” Birmingham police officer Truman Fitzgerald told AL.com. “We’ve seen more incidents of online threats that we’ve ever seen.”

A similar situation took place last week in Leeds, with a student making an online threat, resulting in the expulsion and arrest of that student for making a terroristic threat.

Elmore and Autauga Schools also faced difficulties Monday when threats that officials believed to be “unsubstantiated” surfaced; school continued but officials were on high alert and allowed absences to be waived with no excuse needed.

A Southside student was taken into custody Monday for making a terrorist threat there; last week a Dothan teen was arrested after making a social media threat against Dothan Preparatory Academy; Eufaula City Schools canceled classes last week due to “threats of violence;” Enterprise went on lockdown after bullets were found on campus.

A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Education said the department does not track instances of threats at the schools.

While few of these instances have shown evidence of a plan or intent to follow through, the threats have still been a cause of concern for parents and students and have taxed school officials and law enforcement officers who are treating the threats seriously.