EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — A district attorney in Texas on Tuesday evidently warned that anyone who takes a weapon to school will face the consequences henceforth. The news conference was held right after a surge of threats of violence directed toward schools in the area and around the nation all in all.
El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks said that at all taking a gun to a school is a third-degree felony and carries a punishment of 2-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, which is very rigid so to say. “We do take all threats and hoaxes seriously, they will be investigated and turned over to the appropriate prosecuting authority,” said interim El Paso police chief Peter Pacillas.
Jeffrey Downey with the El Paso FBI said the surge of social media threats toward schools and communities is an alarming problem in El Paso and across the nation. In 2022, there were almost 6,000 school threats across the country, which is a 60% increase from 2021. This year the El Paso community has also seen an increase in school threats,” Downey said.
He said that over the past two weeks, the El Paso FBI has worked on eight of these school threats and said quite candidly that the local school police departments say they are facing at least three of threats a day which is quite high a number. Downey is urging anyone who seeks suspicious activity by someone who makes a threat to themselves or the community to report it. “Early intervention is key for us to prevent an escalated situation,” he said. “Law enforcement can’t do this alone. We need the community’s help.”
In the juvenile system, a juvenile who makes a threat will have a hearing within 48 hours, according to Emily Dawson with the El Paso County Attorney’s Office.
“Quite often they are going to remain in our detention facility, while we handle the case. My office does not downgrade these offenses,” said Dawson. “You make a threat against a school and are referred to us by law enforcement we will charge it as a state jail felony and as a juvenile you can be placed on probation until your 18th birthday, you can be sent away to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department if necessary.”
“Most of these juveniles do it as a joke. It is not funny. And most of them will go on to probation or receive services in counselling to address those issues,” she continued. All law enforcement agency leaders urged parents to speak to their children about the gravity of making threats and urged parents to check their children’s cell phones. “I tell every parent if your child has a cell phone, you should be checking that cell phone. You’re paying for it, you should check it on a regular basis and you need to talk to your child about what they are posting online,” said Dawson.
