Weeks after the 2024-2025 school year came to an end, several Northeast Georgia law enforcement officials sat down to discuss the spike in school threats seen in the region in the aftermath of the deadly September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman and Hall County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Franklin all said there was a sudden increase in threatening calls, social media messages or rumors in the weeks after the shooting, with that continuing throughout the school year.
The months-long string of threats came to a head with a series of incidents spanning all three counties in late April and early May. Chestatee High School in Hall County, DeSana Middle School in Forsyth and five different schools in Barrow all received phone calls from people reportedly outside of the state of Georgia who were claiming to have placed bombs throughout the campuses and to have had people waiting outside to shoot anyone who left the buildings. Law enforcement investigations ultimately determined that none of those threats were credible…