Austin’s Daily Commentary – Addressing Threats At Local Schools

Austin talks about Columbia County's stance on the terroristic threats at the schools. [audio mp3="https://wgac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2024/09/20240919-adc.mp3"][/audio] Transcript: Austin: Columbia County School officials are communicating in no uncertain terms there will be no tolerance of any kind when it comes to terroristic threats, the threat of armed violence among school students in Columbia County. And by the way, this isn't just social media posts. This is loose talk that, unfortunately, the students are sharing among themselves. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, there's been a spike in these incidents, all related, of course, to the Appalachee shooting, which occurred just a little bit northwest of the Augusta area two weeks ago. This is completely and totally unacceptable. And again, the superintendent coming by yesterday on the Austin Rhodes Show to tell everybody that is absolutely off the menu. He brought with him the police chief for the Columbia County School Security Force. That's Chief Gary Owens, by the way. And he also has made it as clear as he possibly can that his people are going to be prosecuting folks who make terroristic threats to the fullest extent of the law. This not only means you're going to have a criminal record, but it means you'll likely be put out of school for the rest of the school year. And by the way, thank goodness gracious, this information is being shared aggressively with the public. I think one of the problems we've had in the past is that when these things come up, they're treated as discipline cases and there's a great deal of secrecy and confidentiality at play. You don't get to really hear about what happens in these cases. Excuse me. It's time that the consequences for these students be known far and wide. And again, Columbia County stating loud and clear they will not be tolerating further instances of these ridiculous threats. And that's the comment. I'm Austin Rhodes, 95.1 FM News Talk WGAC. For more from The Austin Rhodes Show, click here.