A 13-year-old middle school student has been charged with making threats toward his a teacher.

On Monday, February 26, a 13-year-old juvenile, who is a student at DeKalb County Middle School, has been charged with a delinquent act of making threats toward a Middle School teacher.

“The juvenile made the threats on social media to another person about pointing a weapon at a teacher earlier this month,” reported Sheriff Patrick Ray of what prompted the delinquency charges. “Due to Friday’s school threat, the school staff at DeKalb Middle School spoke to students and advised them everyone was OK, but if they ever heard a rumor or knew about someone who was going to do harm to the school, to tell someone.”

That is when a student told school staff about the threat toward the teacher today (Monday).  The school staff then advised the School Resource Officer, who then contacted Sheriff Patrick Ray.

Sheriff’s investigators then started an investigation. “Throughout interviews and obtaining social media messages, detectives were able to determine the student did make the threats,” the sheriff said, noting the juvenile is currently being held in the Putnam County Juvenile Detention Center.

Sheriff Ray added “I am very proud of the student who reported this incident to the school staff. It took a lot of courage for them to tell someone. I, along with my Department, are committed to ensure all students and school staff are safe. Any threats of this kind will not be tolerated. I ask all parents to talk with their children about these kind of threats and to monitor their child’s social media conversations. If a threat is found, please report it to law enforcement immediately. I also encourage all students to talk with the School Resource Officer or school staff about any threat they hear.”