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Friday was a chaotic day for students, parents, and school staff in Chambers County. What seemed like school shooting threats against Lanett High School and Valley High School were found to be miscommunications on social media. The separate incidents come on the heels of the Sept. 4 school shooting in Winder, Georgia. Threats of violence against schools has risen since the shooting. 

Lanett:

Thursday night, the Lanett Police Department put out a statement saying that there was a social media post threatening to “shoot up” Lanett City schools, without naming the campus. The next day at Friday 10:49, LPD sent an update saying the investigation into the threat was still ongoing, and there was increased police presence on the campuses.  

Finally at 5:30 on Friday, the Lanett Police Department sent out a third statement saying it had closed the investigation into the social media threat believed to have been directed at the Lanett City Schools. The investigation revealed that there had been no threat made against the Lanett City Schools. 

“Detectives were able to determine that the original post had been a previously known post pertaining to a school in another city,” the statement read. “A screenshot of this post was taken and inadvertently the name of the school was cropped from the picture. This screenshot was shared on social media and the students incorrectly assumed it was directed against the Lanett City Schools.”

Valley:

Ten minutes away at Valley High School, there was a brief “secure your space” alert this morning, according to Principal Troy Kelley. The school was swept by law enforcement however classes continued.

“We just did a general sweep of the building, just a safety sweep….We had our teachers continue to teach in the classroom during that time. We just wanted to, you know, go that extra mile to just check areas like bathrooms to make sure there were not any issues,” Kelley said.

According to the Valley Police Department, earlier in the week, there was an email threat regarding a W.F. Burns middle school, which was also deemed to be not credible. Valley schools have also had increased police presence throughout the week and have been put on ‘heightened awareness alert.’

“[The secure your space alert] was just temporary. We received some unsubstantiated rumors that there was a threat to the school, so we went through the steps to make sure everything was in order and everything was fine,” said Capt. Stacey Shirey with the Valley Police Department.

At 11:00 on Friday, CCSD put out a statement saying the school was not on lockdown, “Steps were taken for safety and security measures due to rumors that have circulated from social media posts.  This began earlier in the week from a situation in a nearby school district in Georgia.”

A little after 5:30 p.m., the CCSD Superintendent Dr. Casey Chambley posted a video on the district’s Facebook page explaining the situation. 

He said the “secure your area” alert was due to an email sent between two students. 

According to Chambley, one student sent a photo off of the internet depicting a man with a gun before the school day had started. Because the photo was sent by the student’s school email on the district-issued Chromebooks, a BARK alert, which monitors for sensitive material on school computers, was sent to Kelley. 

During the investigation, one of the student’s cars, which was owned by the student’s father,  was searched. In it, they found a holster for a gun, an empty ammunition box, and a hunting knife. No firearm was found in the car. After administrators and law enforcement questioned the students it was determined that there was no threat made. 

As a precaution, Chambley said, a sweep of the school by local law enforcement was organized, including a firearms detection dog from a Lee County SRO team. No weapons were found and the “secure your space” was dropped.