Alleged ORHS threats: Update on students; info sharing improved

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said the city staff will now be getting improved and more notifications about issues at the city's schools, following the alleged shooting threats made by three Oak Ridge High School students on social media on Dec. 6 and 7.

Meanwhile, Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark stated Friday that the three students charged for making the alleged threats remain in a juvenile detention facility after being charged Dec. 8.

During the Oak Ridge City Council meeting on Dec. 13, Watson complimented the Oak Ridge Police Department for its work coordinating with Oak Ridge Schools during the alleged threats, and for the work of its criminal investigation division.

He said officials with the school system will now be working more closely with city staff than it was during those incidents.

"The parents were being advised, but City Hall was not," he said of the alleged threats and resulting actions, such as the Dec. 6 lockdown of ORHS.

"We're now on the list, just like a parent," he said. Officials at the Municipal Building will now receive the same telephone calls that students' parents or guardians receive when such incidents occur.

He ran through information on the two incidents and the reasons for communication issues behind the scenes.

Wilson said several people who could have been involved in sharing information about the incidents were out of town, something for which he said the city always needs to be ready. Specifically, he said, Holly Cross, supervisor of career readiness and communications for the school system, was out of town and "handling things from afar."

"When you're investigating something like a Snapchat situation, those images disappear like that, and tracking those down is a little harder to come by," he said, meaning there wasn't much information to share. This, he said, led to what seemed like "horrendously long communication gaps" between the releases of information to the public. He said the city was concerned with getting information out correctly.

"The facts didn't come quickly, they came after a long period of time," Watson said.

The next day's threat, he said, was "immediately taken care of by 2 a.m."

Watson said he had a discussion with City Senior Communications Specialist Lauren Gray, Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers and Cross regarding the incident on Dec. 10.

Mayor Warren Gooch was not at the Dec. 13 meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Rick Chinn presided over the meeting and praised the ORPD and Police Chief Robin Smith for their response.

"A potential tragedy was averted, so great job," Chinn said.

Adult court for juveniles?

The three students who allegedly posted shooting threats against ORHS on social media have been charged with terrorism, threats of mass violence on school property and for filing false reports. Two of the three students have also been charged with conspiracy, according to information from the school system and the district attorney general.

In an emailed response to the newspaper's questions, Clark said all three students appeared in court Wednesday. Lawyers have been or are being appointed for all three. Their next court date is one day during the first week of January.

The three students remain in custody in the Richard L. Bean Center in Knoxville, he said. Anderson County does not have a juventile detention center.

"The Oak Ridge Police Department still has an open investigation as we are awaiting the collection and reports regarding mostly digital evidence," Clark stated. "So, we do not yet have a complete investigative file.

"Once we have a complete file, we will make a decision whether to ask the Juvenile Court judge to transfer any of the defendants to adult court," he said.

"There are a number of both laws and other factors that determine whether a juvenile can or should be transferred to adult court. The next step in the court process is to determine whether they should remain in custody and whether they should remain in the juvenile justice system or be transferred to adult court. We are working on evaluating those issues right now," Clark said.

Reported threats

As reported in The Oak Ridger earlier, ORHS Principal Garfield Adams said two of the ORHS students were identified as having made a threatening statement on Snapchat Dec. 6.

In a news release, Gray said both juveniles admitted to making the threat and the investigation concluded no weapon was ever involved.

"We have further confirmed that the posting was a hoax and there was never any malicious intent," Adams said. The school was at the time placed on a level three lockdown with an increased police presence at the school the next day.

Then the ORPD identified overnight another ORHS student as the suspect for a new ORHS threat on social media, Gray said in another news release on the morning of Dec. 8. She also said that the investigators concluded it was not a credible threat.

On the afternoon of Dec. 8, Clark and Gray issued news releases outlining the three students' charges and including information that they had been taken into custody and taken to a juvenile facility in Knox County.

Power outage

In a separate matter at the Dec. 13 meeting, Watson told City Council that 600 customers, including the Oak Ridge Farmer's Market, lost power in a storm Saturday, Dec. 18. The city restored power to 500 of them by 11:30 a.m., but a broken pole on Houston Avenue delayed the effort, he said.

Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal and email him at bpounds@oakridger.com. News editor Donna Smith contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Alleged ORHS threats: Update on students; info sharing improved