11-year old arrested for making threat in Tennessee: view of young black child form behind in horizontal striped shirt at dusk

An 11-year-old denied making a threat and was allowed to return to school. Tennessee police arrested him anyway.

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In late September, Torri was driving down the highway with her 11-year-old son Junior in the back seat when her phone started ringing.

It was the Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy who worked at Junior’s middle school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Deputy Arthur Richardson asked Torri where she was. She told him she was on the way to a family birthday dinner at LongHorn Steakhouse.

“He said, ‘Is Junior with you?’” Torri recalled.

Earlier that day, Junior had been accused by other students of making a threat against the school. When Torri had come to pick him up, she’d spoken with Richardson and with administrators, who’d told her he was allowed to return to class the next day. The principal had said she would carry out an investigation then. ProPublica and WPLN are using a nickname for Junior and not including Torri’s last name at the family’s request, to prevent him from being identifiable.

When Richardson called her in the car, Torri immediately felt uneasy. He didn’t say much before hanging up, and she thought about turning around to go home. But she kept driving. When they walked into the restaurant, Torri watched as Junior happily greeted his family.

Soon her phone rang again. It was the deputy. He said he was outside in the strip mall’s parking lot and needed to talk to Junior. Torri called Junior’s stepdad, Kevin Boyer, for extra support, putting him on speaker as she went outside to talk to Richardson. She left Junior with the family, wanting to protect her son for as long as she could ...

Tennessee arms teachers: Several adults stand and sit in balcony gallery area, many holding signs with language protesting arming teachers in schools

A school shooting in Tennessee sparked activism — and now frustration

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Ibtihal “Ibti” Cheko, 17, thought she would spend the legislative session in Tennessee advocating for laws about how guns should be stored and implementing background checks for those who want to buy them. Instead, Cheko and other organizers with Students Demand Action pivoted to trying to make sure Senate Bill 1325, which would permit faculty and staff to carry handguns at school, did not pass. They weren’t successful. The bill passed in both chambers in April.

Oxford school shooter's parents can face manslaughter trial: two people with masks sitting at table with hands cuffed while policeman looks on from background

A history of holding parents responsible for their kids’ crimes

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Just three days before her 15-year-old son carried out a mass shooting at his Michigan high school in 2021, Jennifer Crumbley was captured on security camera leaving a shooting range with the handgun in tow. She had just taken her son out to target practice in what she described on social media as a “mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present:” a 9-millimeter pistol the high schooler referred to online as “My new beauty.”

Active shooter drill: Line of several teens with hands up behind heads stand in side building hallway protected by armed police

95% of public schools conduct active shooter drills. Are students safer?

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Lockdown drills aimed at preparing students to protect themselves from school shooters do more to stir kids’ anxiety than their sense of protection, argues Dr. Annie Andrews, a South Carolina mother, pediatrician and firearm injury researcher. “Our children do not benefit from participating in these drills,” said former congressional candidate Andrews, also co-founder of  Their Future. Our Vote. “Children deserve to feel safe in their schools.”

Among those countering that viewpoint is Alex Piquero, a University of Miami criminologist and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. “We are, unfortunately, living in a world where we just have to plan for school shootings and hope that they never happen,” said Piquero, a former editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

Uvalde families plead for languishing Texas gun bills: group of people in black shirts stand next to someone speaking at podium

Uvalde families plead for languishing Texas gun bills

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Parents whose children were killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre made sobbing pleads for stricter gun laws before legislators early Wednesday on languishing proposals that appeared headed to stall in the face of a Republican majority.

Covenant School shooting: Young blinde girl sits inside yellow school bus with face abd hand pressed against window crying

Doctor decries gun violence after school shooting near miss

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A pediatric surgeon who left The Covenant School in Nashville moments before a shooter opened fire, killing six people, says she is horrified by the gun violence that has plagued the U.S. After she received a text alerting her to the attack, Grayson took to Facebook to post about what she experienced, writing, "WHY ARE OUR CHILDREN BEING MASSACRED IN THEIR SCHOOLS?!"

Oxford school shooter's parents can face manslaughter trial: two people with masks sitting at table with hands cuffed while policeman looks on from background

Oxford school shooter’s parents can face manslaughter trial

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The murders would not have happened if the parents hadn't purchased a gun for Ethan Crumbley or if they had taken him home from Oxford High School on the day of the shooting, when staff became alarmed about his extreme drawings, the appeals court said, in a groundbreaking case of criminal responsibility for the acts of a child.