Wake County DA: Students who threaten violence at school almost never get sent to juvenile jail

Law enforcement agencies across Wake County have filed charges or secured juvenile petitions for at least 34 people in the last year accused of communicating threats of mass violence at schools; however, none of the students caught making threats spent time in juvenile detention.

2023-02-09

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office, which staffs a school resource officer (SRO) in all middle schools in the Wake County Public School System and East Wake High School, said it has investigated 24 people for threatening messages of violence on school property since January 2022.

Police departments in Apex, Cary, Garner and Zebulon sought juvenile petitions in a combined 10 cases.

The Raleigh Police Department, which staffs SROs at high schools within city limits, said it has not filed any charges or petitions related to communicating threats of mass violence at schools in more than a year.

In North Carolina, "communicating threats of mass violence on educational property" is a Class H felony that, without a prior criminal history, often carries no jail time in both adult and juvenile court.

“Our ability to long-term detain someone or put someone in custody that commits one of these threats of mass violence to an educational institution is limited,” said Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.

Freeman said she would support the North Carolina General Assembly adding a provision to state law that would allow for secured detention while suspects undergo a rigorous threat assessment to determine if they developed a plan to carry out an attack or have easy access to weapons.

“There are limited instances in which we find that secure custody orders are issued [and] I think those are important tools,” Freeman said. “We are not saying these people need to be locked up forever; but, in many of these instances, you need to be able to call a time-out, make sure the individual is not posing a threat while all this background work is being done to really be able to assess that threat and determine what access they have to weapons.”

Freeman, who has been Wake County’s top prosecutor for eight years, said there have been no recent cases in which a juvenile was detained for communicating threats.

It’s unclear how many times law enforcement agencies requested a secure custody order that was not approved by a judge.

“When we think there is an actual threat [and] someone is a risk to public safety, our best way to try and stop that until we can get a handle on it is to take a person into custody," Freeman said.

Most cases result in mental health treatment, mediation, conflict resolution and other diversion requirements. The Wake County Public Schools' student handbook also outlines disciplinary action from short-term suspensions to expulsion depending on the severity of the threat.

Specialized N.C. SBI unit assists in threat assessment

Connor Terrell, 23, of Mebane, was arrested in September after prosecutors said he posted a video on Snapchat showing a gun and threatening violence to an unspecific high school in Zebulon.

“I am going to shoot up a (expletive) school Monday,” Terrell said in the video.

Court records show Terrell spent 66 days in jail before his release in November. Terrell is currently on probation and must be monitored by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Threat Assessment (BeTA) Unit.

Freeman said Terrell’s charge for communicating threats will ultimately be dismissed if he follows the conditions of his release for one year.

The “BeTA” Unit was formed in 2018 in the aftermath of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead and injured 17 others.

The NC SBI wrote on its website the unit is “staffed by law enforcement officers, intelligence analysts and mental health professionals, the BeTA Unit mission is to identify, investigate, evaluate and manage person(s) of concern within North Carolina who are recognized as having motive and means to develop, or act on an opportunity to commit a targeted attack.”

Freeman said the team assists in select cases, including those involving juvenile offenders, and conduct interviews with classmates, friends, family and school staff to determine a person’s propensity for violence.

A ‘national security’ concern

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe said threats of violence, especially via phone, do not always stem from a local source or person.

Rowe said investigators, in a few cases, have linked violent calls to schools to foreign nations.

“When they originate from foreign countries it’s very difficult, but we are working hard on that,” said Rowe, who is considering engaging with the U.S. military for help in identifying those people responsible for the threats.

“I see it as a national security threat,” Rowe said. “The military has a lot of tools and we just want to be able to share the resources so we can keep Wake County and North Carolina and our nation safe.”

WRAL Investigates reached out to the North Carolina National Guard to see what intelligence resources they might be able to provide local law enforcement. A spokesperson did not immediately respond.

Rowe said the threats and subsequent lockdowns at schools create panic and fear among students, teachers, staff and parents and require a lot of manpower to thoroughly investigate each threat.

“It’s challenging. We have to utilize a lot of resources,” Rowe said. “It requires a lot of units to be on-site to ensure there is no weapons [and] there is no one in harm’s way.”

There have been at least 10 security lockdowns of varying levels at schools across Wake County in the last two weeks. On Feb. 3, Zebulon Magnet Middle School was put on Code Red lockdown and students were dismissed early after a social media post surfaced depicting guns and threatening violence.

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office announced on Feb. 8 that investigators identified a juvenile responsible and filed a juvenile petition in the case.

Since taking office in 2015, Freeman said there have been “some instances” of students who began planning an attack or had access to weapons, but a vast majority of school threats are “thoughtless” hoaxes.

“A lot of times what we are seeing is this is somebody thinking it is funny — when obviously it is not — or a cry for help,” Freeman said.

Rowe also expressed concerns about students bringing guns to school. There have been two such cases handled by the sheriff’s office in the last two years. He asks parents to help by securing weapons at home and frequently checking their children's social media accounts for any suspicious activity.