Law Enforcement Responds to Incidents at MCJHS & RBS
By Jessie Williams
Local law enforcement responded to two separate incidents at two different Macon County schools last week, and one is still under investigation.
According to Macon County Sheriff Joey Wilburn the first school related incident took pace at Macon County Junior High School on Wednesday, February 22, when a bullet was found in a hallway.
After some investigating, officers discovered which student the bullet belonged to and a search was conducted.
“A search of the premises was conducted along with a bus and the student’s belongings,” Sheriff Wilburn explained. “A Student Resource Officer found some knives that also belonged to the student. The student had inadvertently brought them to school and did not know the items were in their possession at school. No other weapons were found.”
On Thursday, February 23, law enforcement responded to a separate incident at Red Boiling Springs School that is still under investigation.
“We were notified that a faculty member discovered a threat written on a bathroom wall,” said Sheriff Wilburn. “This is an ongoing investigation and we have narrowed down the list of students who had access to this bathroom using video footage at the school. Extra police presence will be located in and around the school for the next few days.”
The sheriff said the threat was not specially aimed at any certain group of people and was written in the grade 6-12 section of the building, in the girls bathroom. The threat reads, ‘I’m going to shoot the school up.’
“We’re doing everything we can to resolve this as fast as we can,” Wilburn stated. “We are taking this threat seriously and working with the Macon County School System to keep everyone safe the best we can.”
Macon County Director of Schools Shawn Carter spoke with the Macon County Chronicle about both incidents last week, praising the schools and local law enforcement for the way each of them were handled.
“We hated to disrupt the school day for our students and to make parents worry, but we handled each of these incidents the best we could,” he remarked. “I am proud of the schools, the cooperation of the faculty and students and of our local enforcement who stepped in to help in each of these situations. The safety of students and staff is our number one priority”
Parents are urged to follow the Macon County School District Facebook page and download the Macon County Schools, TN app from their phone’s app store to receive notifications about incidents like these, along with other important school and student related information.
“Once parents download the app, they are able to choose to receive push notifications and select specific schools they wish to receive those notifications from,” said Macon County Schools Technology Director Crystal Hesson. “The notifications from the app also include bus route changes, school closings, reminders, sports schedule changes, events, and much more.”
All of the app notifications also appear on the school district’s Facebook page and in the live feed of its website.
Next year, Hesson says, the district hopes to set up an automated call system for parents that will send notifications in the form of texts and automated phone calls.
“We are currently working with a company that implements these types of systems,” she said. “Of course parents would have the option to opt out, but the automated system would be a great tool for us to communicate information quickly and efficiently.”
The Macon County School System and local enforcement request that if you or your children have any information concerning the incident at Red Boiling Springs School, to please call or text 615-359-8399 or 615-359-8331.
