Wayne Co. High School student arrested for terroristic threats

WAYNE COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Police say a Wayne County High School student is facing felony charges after making threats against the school on Wednesday.

Jesup Police Chief Perry Morgan says the threat happened after school hours around 4:15 p.m. Wednesday. This means the school didn’t have to be placed on lockdown, and there weren’t any immediate impacts to the school’s schedule.

Chief Morgan says the threat originated from a TikTok video that began circulating among classmates through texting.

“He threatened to do bodily harm to students at that school by saying he’s going to go in and start shooting up the school. So, that will qualify for terroristic threats,” Chief Morgan said.

Police say they were told about the texts and TikTok video and took immediate action Wednesday afternoon.

“Once they got that threat, they reacted quick, went ahead to the residence and arrested him at that time,” Chief Morgan said.

The student was taken into custody without incident. Chief Morgan says they had extra patrols at the schools this morning to ensure the school day started smoothly. He says there’s no active threat to the school at this time.

“The kids are safe. We have SROs at the high school, we have them at the middle schools, the school is in good shape as far as security.”

The Wayne County School System released the following statement about the incident, “The Wayne County School System is committed to the welfare and safety of all students and staff members. We will hold persons accountable when there are threats against our students, staff, and schools.”

Chief Morgan says every situation like this is taken seriously.

“A lot of times, when activities happen at school, events happen at school, where you have an active shooter or threats at schools, a lot of times it’s copycats. But at the same time, you’ve got to take them serious, you cannot take them light. You’ve got to investigate,” he said.

Chief Morgan says a terroristic threats charge could result in 5-10 years in jail if convicted.

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