RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — School, safety and legal leaders across the Commonwealth are sounding the alarm as at least five Virginia teenagers — from Chesterfield County to Newport News — are currently facing charges related to school threats.
Most recently, on Monday, Sept. 23, prosecutors charged a 14-year-old in Charles City County with one count of making a threat of death or bodily injury toward a public school. But this is just one of several incidents across Virginia in recent weeks.
In an effort to increase transparency and create an open dialogue between officials and community members, the City of Richmond’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin hosted a Public Safety and Schools forum to further discuss this topic in Central Virginia.
“This appropriately is the time, given the recent school shootings and shootings by teenagers that we’re all aware of,” McEachin said Tuesday night.
These cases appear to have begun skyrocketing across America after a deadly school shooting in Georgia in early September. The aforementioned five charged teens represent just the handful of cases pending litigation. There have been a total of more than a dozen other reported threats made in Central Virginia schools since school began.