MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Parents, students and staff have been under stress after multiple threats of gun violence against Memphis area schools started circulating on social media the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 18.
The threat of attack has also caused a strain on law enforcement across the region.
With all Memphis-Shelby County schools on high alert Friday, the after effect of threats against schools is taking a major toll on the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Floyd Bonner.
“We stopped doing other things to put officers in the area,” Bonner said.
As a result of Wednesdays' threats, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office diverted more than 50 deputies and investigators who were on other assignments to saturate MSCS schools across the county, according to Bonner.
“We devoted a lot of resources a lot of man hours where our officers could have, should have maybe be doing other things, but we had to stop what we were doing to investigate this because this was serious,” the sheriff said.
Bonner said in addition to the deputies who were reassigned, the FBI and the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security were brought in to aid the still active investigation.
Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner said the money being put toward MSCS schools doesn’t just relate to deputies, but also everything they actually touch and do.
“There are dollars attached to the amount of resources that we dedicated from the number of deputies: the fuel, the vehicles and the other responsibilities that we had during this hours-long day, trying to resolve this,” Buckner said.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said they spent more than $10,000 on added resources Wednesday.
As a result of the threats against schools, there have been at least six arrests, including the arrest and extradition of a 15-year-old from Nashville who authorities say was the person behind the threats against Southwind High School that led to a lockdown on Sept. 18.
Deputy Commissioner of Homeland Security Greg Mays said the TN Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security investigated 125 school threats last week, and 321 from Aug. 1 to Sept. 14.
"Recently we have seen an increase in reported threats to schools across the state. All threats to schools are taken seriously and result in some level of public safety response, even if the threat is not credible or a hoax. Threatening an act of mass violence toward a school is a felony in Tennessee, and anyone who threatens a school can be arrested," Mays said.