Several students face charges after threats made to Metro Public Schools

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Multiple Metro Schools students are facing charges after a string of violent threats and even a loaded gun being brought to school.

Lt. Jason Picanzo said Metro Police is already slightly ahead of the number of violent threats officers investigated last year, and resources have been strained with six incidents over just the past week.

Picanzo said students have started copying threats others have made on social media, changing the school name and then posting it on their own Instagram or Snapchat. Those threats have been reported by students and parents to school officials who get in contact with School Resource Officers to investigate.

Students are mainly hoping to get out of school with these hoax threats, Picanzo said, but everything still needs to be fully investigated and prosecuted to keep everyone safe. They put the full resources of Metro Police behind the investigations to make sure they are able to find each student making a threat.

“They don’t realize the seriousness of it,” Picanzo said. “Especially with what we saw last school year in Texas, there are just some things we can’t joke about. Mass violence in a school is one that cannot be joked about and will not be tolerated here in Nashville.”

“Every decision has a consequence,” Picanzo said. “We hope to use these situations not only to prosecute those who do this, but we hope they learn from this and that their peers see what happened and that there will be follow through and that there are consequences to poor decisions so that they don’t make that.”

Metro Police have been able to prevent any of these threats from becoming a violent tragedy by staying in constant communication with school officials about what is happening in buildings, Picanzo said. School Resource Officers are now focusing on educating students on good decision-making.

Picanzo said the best way to prevent these threats is for parents to begin talking with their children at a young age about how serious these situations can be and why they should never make a threat.

Metro Police is set to add more non-uniformed officers to schools by the end of the Fall semester that have special training to spot safety situations, Picanzo said. They will focus on checking for doors or windows that are left open and other ways a hoax threat could become a violent situation.

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