Effingham County Sheriff claims 'no legal authority' to detain student who made terroristic threats
Some parents in Effingham County have grown concerned over law enforcement’s handling of a student who was arrested for terroristic threats on Sept. 29.
But Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie said he had no legal authority to detain the youngster, according to guidelines set by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.
“Juvenile services said to take him to the office, fingerprint and take him to his mom,” said McDuffie. “The only way that we can detain a juvenile is through juvenile services and they make that call whether he is detained.”
The student’s whereabouts are unknown and it is unclear if he is on house arrest or was told to stay away from school property. Effingham County Superintendent Yancy Ford said he is not permitted to give out information regarding the juvenile because they are governed by the Georgia Performance Standards.
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Threatening Posts: Effingham County student arrested for terroristic threats
Another student arrested for having pocketknife on campus
Another student at the same high school was arrested in a separate incident on Sept. 28, after having been found with a pocketknife on the school’s property, but according to McDuffie, the 16-year-old who was arrested for terroristic threats was never on campus with a weapon.
McDuffie said it is unclear whether the teen had a gun and that he would need to verify the information. However, last week, Brian Bailey, public information officer for the sheriff’s department, confirmed that a photo that surfaced online of a young man holding a gun was indeed the student who was arrested for the terroristic threats.
Those online threats prompted a concerned parent to contact the Effingham County Sheriff's Department at 5:42 a.m. on Sept. 29, after her daughter expressed concern about attending school.
A redacted police incident report stated that the post was made in a Snapchat group page called Effingham County High School 2025. It read, "Y'all didn't seem to get the memo and a bunch of mfs think it's a (blank) or (blank) but it's neither I'll just handle both of em myself" with a picture of an AR-15-style rifle. Another post in a similar group stated, "school being shot up tmr try and stay home."
According to the report, the individual was “shown the Snapchats and confessed to posting them. He stated he received other texts from other kids that made him mad.”
When asked how the school plans to crack down on bullying, Ford said, “We have a bullying protocol flowchart in accordance with Georgia law that we follow in all cases reported to administration as potential bullying.”
Sheriff said no gun was found, student made no direct threat
“To my knowledge they didn't find a gun,” said McDuffie. “He had a picture of a gun that he sent to a friend but to my knowledge, he never had a gun. All we had was a picture of a gun.”
He went on to say the student’s language did not indicate he would carry out what was written online. “We don't have any reason to believe that he intended to harm anybody. He just made a comment that the school was going to get shot up. To the best of my knowledge, he never told anyone he was going to shoot or hurt anybody. He did not say he was going to do it or that Johnny or Sally would do it. That's part of the reason he was just detained. There was no direct threat.”
Still, McDuffie said the incident was dealt with because of the times we are living in. “There was never a direct threat to shoot or hurt anybody but even that ― 10 years ago nobody thought twice about it,” said McDuffie. “Momma would have been told to tell him to calm down and quit, and that would have been the end of it. But today, you can't do that.”
School shootings have been a cause for concern for since April 1999, when two 12th grade students killed 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. According to usafacts.org, there have been more than 750 shootings at K-12 schools that resulted in injuries or death since 2000, including West Nickel Mines Amish School in 2006, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 and Robb Elementary School in 2022.
According to Sandy Hook Promise, a national nonprofit dedicated to combating gun violence, 80% of all school shooters tell someone or post online about their plans, but in the majority of cases, the people and authorities around them thought they were "joking."
Latrice Williams is a general assignment reporter covering Bryan and Effingham County. She can be reached at lwilliams6@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: effingham county sheriff mcduffie breaks silence on school incident
