Sen. Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican, says he sees no need to change a law criminalizing threats of violence, although opponents say the law has been misapplied.(Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Tennessee lawmakers who led efforts to quell mass school violence say no change is needed in a state law that led to punishment of numerous students, even for ill-advised pranks.
Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell of Nashville and Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin defended the measure lawmakers passed in 2023 making it a felony instead of a misdemeanor to threaten violence at a school.
Mitchell, who is running for election to Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, said he pushed for stricter punishment against school threats two years ago at the request of Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton when police converged on his son’s Nashville high school in response to a threat.
The bipartisan bill, which was carried in the Senate by former Republican Sen. Jon Lundberg of Briston, passed by a wide margin. Mitchell acknowledged that law enforcement and school administrators might have been overzealous after the Covenant shooting law enforcement but had no choice except to take similar threats seriously because of the trauma they cause children.
“A lot of it is prosecutorial discretion,” Mitchell said. “A prosecutor knows whether it’s a credible threat or not and if they’re charging someone who shouldn’t be charged because they have some type of disability.”
Mitchell, though, said he felt the measure was necessary in the wake of the Covenant School shooting where six people were killed, including three 9-year-olds, as well as multiple other mass threats that were disrupting schools.
Haile, who tried to pass restrictions in a special session after the Covenant shooting, told the Lookout the process for handling threats is supposed to begin with teachers and work its way through administrators before a student is charged. He also raised questions about the veracity of reports detailing student arrests and whether law enforcement went too far in charging young people who posted pranks and jokes on social media. He did not give specifics.
“It starts with discretion of the teacher, the administrator, the principal. It escalates up,” Haile said. “There may be some times it gets past where it should be. But overall, I think we’ve got a good bill, and it’s working the way we want it to.”
Multiple students, though, have been arrested in the wake of Tennessee’s legislature passing restrictions against threats of mass violence at schools or posting them on social media, even if they’re meant as a joke or misunderstood by administrators and law enforcement.
ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom, reported recently about a group of South Greene Middle School cheerleaders who got into trouble for filming a TikTok video in which they pretended to fall down and play dead in a classroom when one of the girls ordered them to put up their hands. The Greene County Sheriff’s Department charged all 16 with disorderly conduct in connection with making and posting the video.
Critics of the law say police are overreacting by charging students and forcing them into the juvenile justice system. Some education officials say it’s better to counsel students about the dangers of playing jokes because of the widespread availability of social media, according to the ProPublica report.
In addition to the cheerleading incident, ProPublic reported a 16-year-old in Middle Tennessee was charged with making a threat of mass violence after he shared a video put together with artificial intelligence. The teen was expelled in spite of the school’s admission that the video was a private joke, ProPublica reported.
The news outlet also reported that a Nashville 12-year-old was expelled after being arrested for sharing screenshots of threatening texts on Instagram, thinking he was warning others because he wanted to be “heroic.”
Tennessee lawmakers four years ago passed legislation making it a misdemeanor to make a threat of mass violence toward a school, then made it a zero-tolerance offense in all public schools, with a mandatory one-year expulsion.
Stung by the mass shooting incident at The Covenant School, lawmakers started looking to toughen laws during a special session but made few concrete moves. Efforts to push gun restrictions failed, and the legislature wound up approving the Mitchell-Lundberg bill the next year.
When Haile started pushing his bill in 2023, he cited the Covenant shooting and the 2020 Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville as evidence a new law was necessary. Haile, though, said he didn’t expect children to be charged for simply mouthing off.
Advocates for special needs or disabled students opposed that measure, saying those students could be punished severely for doing something they didn’t realize was wrong.
Mitchell’s law, which does not apply to some people with mental or intellectual disabilities, passed two days short of the one-year anniversary of The Covenant School shooting.
Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson of Nashville, a retired special education teacher, said she opposed legislation that failed to exempt all special needs or disabled students who might make threats without understanding the consequences.
“I think it’s a problem. I think the bill is bad. It doesn’t take into account a lot of things. It’s got a lot of unintended consequences,” Johnson said.
Haile’s bill, which was sponsored in the House by Rep. Mark Cochran, a Monroe County Republican, created two new felony offenses: one for recklessly making a threat of mass violence against two or more individuals and another more serious felony if that threat is directed toward a school, college, church, concert, government office or spaces in which 250 or more people are gathered.
Cochran reportedly started hearing complaints about the measure this year and discussed making changes that would require the act to be “intentional” before any charges could be levied.
A measure proposed by Gov. Bill Lee this year, HB1314 by House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland and SB1296 by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin passed this year with bipartisan support and included the words “intentionally” engaging in conduct to carry out a threat, such as gathering weapons, ammunition, body armor, vehicles or materials used to make a weapon of mass destruction. It took effect July 1, criminalizing “doxing,” or putting other people’s names and addresses on social media, and increased penalties for mass threats that must be legitimate and capable of causing death or injury to four or more people. It applies to schools, government buildings, churches and public events.
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