One moment, 11-year-old Junior was enjoying a family birthday at a restaurant in Chattanooga. The next, he was being handcuffed and forced into a police car. The officer cited a new state law making threats of mass violence at school a felony.
WPLN’s Paige Pfleger and I have been investigating the consequences of this felony law for children and their families in Tennessee. Police do not have to find a threat to be credible to arrest students. But in a confusing contradiction, state law says schools can only expel kids if they find their threats are “valid.”
So students are being arrested for statements that wouldn’t even get them expelled.
