In light of a series of prank phone calls to end the school year, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office released an educational video reminding parents the legal consequences of threats of violence.
Sheriff Eddie Farris said he coordinated with the safety team to develop the video as a tool for school resource deputies to use in every school. Farris said the project addresses a recurring issue where students make threatening statements they do not actually intend to carry out.
“We get a lot of sometimes students saying things they really don’t mean,” Farris said. “But at the end of the day, the way the law reads and the way our judge here reacts, we end up having to make arrests and do some things. So we thought it’d be a good educational video, not just for the students, but really to take home maybe to the parents as well.”
Farris said every student in the Putnam County school system will watch the video at least once or twice every year. Farris said he is hopeful the message will deter a large percentage of prank calls and threats that have occurred during the current school year.
“I think that the students take it serious when they’re listening and they hear it,” Farris said. “Let’s just hope the heat of the moment don’t carry something out of context and get them to do something else and say something they really wish they hadn’t said.”
Farris said the department investigates every threat call or message until it can be disproved, which often requires deputies to work through the night to ensure buildings are safe for students to return the next morning. Farris said the office will consider creating additional videos if this initial effort successfully improves the school environment.
“This particular video was put out there not to try necessarily to deter the people who really intend to try to do harm,” Farris said. “It was put out there really for the students who most of the time are joking around or say something that shouldn’t be said.”
Farris said he does not want concerns over school safety to drive parents toward homeschooling and noted that the local school resource deputy program has received recognition from both the Governor Bill Lee and President Donald Trump. Farris said deputies are specifically trained to take care of threats immediately to ensure Putnam County remains a safe area for education.
“I don’t want school safety to be a reason for someone to have to choose to do homeschool here in Putnam County,” Farris said. “And so far, it’s not been and we don’t want it to go that way. We’ll do everything in our power to keep that.”
Farris said the ultimate goal of the video is to bridge the communication gap between parents and their children regarding what is appropriate to say.
“The parents certainly knows when their kids say something that it’s wrong,” Farris said. “Usually the kid knows that it’s wrong after they say it. But that’s the gap we got to bridge and the only way we do that is talk about it and communicate and get the video out.”