JESSAMINE CO., Ky. (LEX 18) — Jessamine County Schools were on lockdown Wednesday after Nicholasville Police said Jessamine County 911 received a call that there was a person at East Jessamine High School with a gun.
The lockdown was eventually lifted.
"They went to lockdown, immediately they investigated...they resolved it immediately," Jon Akers, the Kentucky Center for School Safety executive director, said.
Akers praised the quick response from law enforcement and Jessamine County Schools.
According to a press release from the school district, the 911 call came from someone on the campus of East Jessamine High School around 8:35 a.m. Wednesday. It was a prank, as reported by Nicholasville Police.
"This will continue on until there's a meaningful consequence levied on these kids who pose these false threats and disrupt the entire school day," Akers noted.
The juvenile suspect in connection with the Jessamine County school prank has been charged with second-degree terroristic threatening. In terms of additional punishment,
Akers offers this perspective:
"I do think financial fines are very, very reasonable here, and I do feel like community service requirements are definitely needed here," Akers said.
In accordance with the School Safety and Resiliency Act in Kentucky, school principals are required to send written notice to students, parents, and guardians within ten days of the first day of school regarding terroristic threatening in the second degree.
"If their kids should engage in terroristic threatening, at this level that we're talking about right now, that would be considered as a second degree Class D felony," Akers noted.
The Kentucky Center for School Safety and Kentucky Office of Homeland Security produced a statewide tipline for all schools. Anybody who sees or hears something suspicious can send the Kentucky Center for School Safety a text message, phone call, or email.
