Georgia student arrested for allegedly creating a kill list
In Georgia, someone saw something and said something.
A tenth grader at Coahulla Creek High School in Georgia, Andrea Crider, reported a threat to her principal.
“He told me he was going to threaten to shoot everybody, so that day I went and told somebody,” Crider said.
“He” is a student who not only verbally told Ms. Crider of his plan that included her brother as a target, but who also had a yellow notebook; written inside in German was the phrase “Menschen zu toten/Ziele.” A school resource officer put the phrase into a translator it came back as “People to Kill.”
The student reportedly told police that the people on the hit list were “people who don’t think highly of me.”
The Whitfield County School District released a statement regarding the incident:
Educators at Coahulla Creek High School responded immediately to evidence that a juvenile student may have threatened the safety of others. Details about student discipline are student records protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and cannot be released by the school system.
“The nature of the information provided to administrators invoked standard procedures to involve the school resource officer, which then involved the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office that is now handling the investigation. The student has not been in school since the discovery and law enforcement officers continue to investigate. We appreciate the school resource officers and staff at the sheriff’s office for their rapid response and thank them for a steady partnership that helps us provide safe school buildings for our students.”
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.
FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.
While the student did not have any weapons on him, according to police, he said his father had guns and he knew how to get to them. He also said he had plans and blueprints to build an explosive device.
The student has not been back to school. He is currently in a juvenile detention center charged with several counts of making terroristic threats and acts.
Firestorm has recently partnered with a variety of independent school associations to create a series of webinars around this and other key issues for schools. Below is one example. Please visit our YouTube Page for more:
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”