12-year-old from Texas charged for school bomb threat hoaxes in south GA

GEORGIA — A 12-year-old from Texas faces multiple charges after making two bomb threats against Georgia schools last week.

In the days after the Apalachee school shooting in Barrow County, school threat hoaxes poured in across the metro, the state and the nation.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a 12-year-old from Texas made threats against two schools in southwest Georgia, leading to an investigation.

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On Sept. 11, staff at Miller County Middle School in Colquitt, Ga. found a message sent to the school’s social media that said a bomb was on campus. The sheriff’s office asked the GBI to help them investigate.

After GBI bomb technicians cleared the school without finding anything to worry them, other agents worked to find out who sent the message.

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The next day, another email with a claim about a bomb on campus was sent to Spring Creek Charter Academy in Bainbridge.

The GBI said the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office asked for their help investigating the message, and agents cleared that school without any concerns.

After conducting interviews and tracking the messages, the GBI said they found the threats had come from a 12-year-old in Texas, and there was no indication they’d traveled to Georgia recently or that there had ever been “a legitimate safety risk at either school.”

The GBI said that anyone with information is asked to call the GBI Thomasville Office at 229-225-4090.

Officials said that after speaking with authorities in Texas, as well as district attorneys in South Georgia and Pataula Judicial Circuits, the Texan minor will be prosecuted by the State of Texas.

Local charges in Georgia may still be filed “if the investigation identifies any others who assisted or conspired in the making of these hoaxes.”

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