Letter to parents: Punishment severe for threats to schools
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Like all other school districts across the state, Warren County Schools are sending home letters to parents explaining the law against anyone making threats to schools and the punishment for breaking that law.
The impetus behind the letter is Senate Bill 1, the recently enacted School Safety and Resiliency Act, that requires all school principals to inform parents of the state’s second-degree terroristic threatening law that was also changed during the 2019 legislative session.
New language in that law reads that a person is guilty of committing second-degree terroristic threatening if a person makes a false statement by any means for the purpose of causing evacuation of a school or school-sanctioned activity, causing the cancellation of classes or school activities or creating fear of serious bodily harm among students, parents or school personnel.
In a letter South Warren High School Principal Jenny Hester sent to parents today, she said between Jan. 23 and April 30 of the 2018 school year, Kentucky schools received 294 terroristic threats that caused fear and disrupted education.
The letter further reads that the school district will pursue swift prosecution and severe punishment for those guilty of that felony offense.
It is one of many sweeping changes Kentucky lawmakers enacted through Senate Bill 1 that became effective June 27.
Read a copy of the letter and the terroristic threatening law here.
