The Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky State Police released a joint statement about the threats sent to schools in the state last week. They asked parents to talk to their children about the severe consequences of making these threats, which are considered Terroristic Threating. They added Terroristic Threating is a Class D Felony that carries a sentence of five to ten years in prison, if convicted.
More than 12 Kentucky school systems received online threats originating from within and from outside the state last week. Governor Andy Beshear said schools did exactly what they were supposed to do.
“I'm proud of the work our schools have done. The most recent report on school safety shows a significant increase over the past several years, with SROs on campus. The design that schools have worked on changes in security have come a long way,” said Beshear.
Beshear added these threats must be taken seriously.
“That type of intent to create fear or the intent to do harm is just awful. You know, it's an evil that is currently in our society and I'd like to think that we can both make our schools more secure, but also have a real conversation about doing something. I mean just doing something,” said Beshear.
Neighboring states also experienced an increase in school threats last week. Upwards of 50 such instances were reported between Virgina, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia. So far, at least five students have been arrested throughout the Commonwealth. Beshear said officials will continue to fully investigate all school threats. Some counties that received threats last week include Boyd, Clark, Lawrence, Knox, Letcher, Adair, Anderson, and more. Some counties like Rowan and Floyd were put into soft lockdowns multiple times over the week.