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PAGE 2A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. OCTOBER 28. 2021
Optimists’ pecan sales underway
The annual Optimist
pecan sales have begun.
Once again the Optimist
Club of Jasper ordered
fresh pecan halves from
Ellis Brothers to raise
funds for projects,
scholarships, and more.
Don’t wait for these
pecans sell fast. 12 oz.
bags for $10 each. Cash
or checks made out to
Optimist Club of Jasper
Pecans are being sold
at Garner Ace Hard
ware, R & R Trikes and
Outdoors, Renasant
Banks, United Commu
nity Bank, Shaw Supply,
Community Banks of
Pickens County, Parish
Lowrie State Farm, Ace
Hardware at Foothills
(Marble Hill), Pickens
Chamber of Commerce
and club members.
Lawson Self Storage
Al Lawson 1188 Talking Rock Rd
Office 706-253-1188 Jasper, GA 30143
Cell 770-893-7221 allawson3@gmail.com
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False rumors of school threats
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sheriff’s office — every SRO,
the CID detectives, all com
mand staff are working to ran
it down immediately. And he
said they take every case se
riously.
On Thursday they were
able to determine fairly
quickly that no one by the re
ported name had ever been
enrolled in a school here and
this didn’t apply to Pickens
County. Craig said he passed
the information along to au
thorities in Pickens, South
Carolina and Pickens, Ala
bama.
Wallace and Craig both
emphasized that it became
clear there was no threat of
any kind involving Pickens
High.
With connections that still
aren’t clear, similar threats
were being dealt with in
many surrounding counties
during a span of days last
week. Craig said they are
aware of similar situations in
Bartow, Forsyth, Cherokee
and Gwinnett counties.
Wallace said it may be a
case where the idea of post
ing fake threats to get stu
dents out of school or just to
create havoc started trending
on some social media used
by students. “We may see
more and more of this type of
stuff, but you can’t just blame
social media, it’s what you do
with it. Blaming social media
is like blaming a pencil for a
misspelling.” Wallace had re
cently seen a trend on social
media of students slapping
teachers.
Craig said they have
found several posts tied to the
threats where the identity of
the person who made the
statement has been hidden
but others are passing it
around in group chats.
In one instance, Craig said
it appears a student in one of
the north Georgia schools
pushed the stunt further by
posting that some type of
shooting was happening and
they were hiding under a
desk. “They may think it’s
funny but if we can find
them, they will definitely be
charged and they will face a
felony and get kicked out of
school,” he said.
Both Craig and Wallace
said they didn’t see any rea
son to put out an all clear on
Thursday night as at that time
there was not any real threat
and they didn’t realize the ru
mors were going viral. “It
certainly got out of hand at
some point (late Thursday),”
said Wallace.
By Friday, rumors of the
potential violence had spread
among students and parents,
also crossing over to the Jr.
High were students began
spreading it as though the
threat had been made there. A
press release was sent by the
sheriff’s office on Friday
morning announcing there
was not threat, but the wide
spread rumors were hard to
rein in.
Rumors were running
rampant on Friday, including
one that a student had been
arrested and taken from Pick
ens High School in hand
cuffs. Actually there were no
arrests at all.
An even wilder one pur
ported that a student had been
arrested and a gun confis
cated from Pickens High, but
the student was then allowed
to return to the campus.
Wallace said some kids
may have used the threat as a
way to get out of class, but he
spoke with several who were
legitimately scared and he
took quite a few phone calls
from parents who were con
cerned.
Both Craig and Wallace
said “it’s a hard call” to fig
ure out how to communicate
when everything is fine.
Both said there is a con
cern that if you were con
stantly sending out releases
that everything is fine, people
would be so flooded by them
that would begin to ignore
them. “It’ll be the boy that
cried wolf,” Wallace said.
“If I sent a press release
every time a kid heard a
rumor, I’d be sending some
thing out constantly,” Craig
said.
Also, Craig and Wallace
said that sending press re
leases can be risky as people
will read more into them, not
read them closely, or jump
directly to words like “active
shooter” and not pay atten
tion to words like “not credi
ble or not legitimate.”
So what should
students/parents do:
Craig said the first recom
mendation is that parents
communicate privately with
law enforcement. Wallace
said that the sheriff’s office
should be the primary go-to
for information on safety is
sues.
Craig listed a variety of
ways for parents to either
pass along tips or ask about
rumors: • Any parent is wel
come to message Sheriff
Donnie Craig personally at
his Facebook page or at the
Pickens Sheriff’s Office on
Facebook.
• People may call at 706-
253-8900 for the main sher
iff’s line.
• A new anonymous tip
line allows two-way conver
sations via text. Text PSOTIP
to 847411. Craig said this is
an excellent way to check a
rumor or offer information
without making something
public.
Like the principal, the
sheriff also urged the com
munity to trust them to take
lead
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
Parents, students and law
enforcement officials may be
relieved there was not a
threat of violence made by
any student at a Pickens
school last week, despite
widespread rumors to the
contrary.
The misinformation, how
ever, did lead to massive dis
ruption on campus with
several hundred students ei
ther staying home on Friday
or checking out early from
Pickens High, plus numerous
calls from panicky parents.
No arrests have been
made over the spreading of
the false information but the
schools and sheriff aren’t
done investigating yet.
Sheriff Donnie Craig said
this week that they are still
reviewing what happened
and looking at how to com
municate with parents when
everything is fine after con
cerns are raised. He said one
immediate point is urging
parents and students to use
private messages, tip lines or
phone calls to check on ru
mors with law enforcement
or school officials, rather that
posting them to a public
forum or asking in group
chats.
“If you see something, say
something, don’t post some
thing,” said the sheriff.
PHS Principal Chris Wal
lace said another key is par
ents trusting that the schools
are working with the sheriff’s
office do everything in their
power to keep students safe.
Principal Wallace said his
child attends Pickens High
and was on campus Friday.
“People should be assured
that if it’s safe enough for my
child, it’s safe enough for
theirs. Parents need to trust
us that we will do what is
best for the kids. If we
thought something was going
to happen, we wouldn’t hesi
tate to lock things down or do
whatever is necessary. We are
100 percent committed to
keeping student safety as a
top priority. We can’t afford
to be wrong even one time.”
With the investigation still
underway, Craig and Wallace
discussed the events last
Thursday and Friday in sepa
rate interviews:
At some point Thursday a
student saw a Snapchat story
that indicated there was a
threat against Pickens High
School. Snapchat is a social
media forum where stories
disappear after a certain
amount of time after they are
posted, but the student re
called the name in the post.
Craig said when a threat
against a school is reported,
it’s all hands on deck at the
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to real world effects
action when necessary. “If
there is a remotely credible
threat, we are going to get the
word out,” he said. “Look for
information from the sher
iff’s or schools. Schools are
not going to open if we be
lieve something is going to
happen.”
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