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Video: Officials take possible threat seriously in Giles County
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Video: Giles County officials take possible school shooting threat seriously
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Photo: A Giles County Sheriff's Office cruiser sits outside of a school Wednesday. Students were not in class Wednesday after an online article was published linking Narrows to a string of mass shootings.
According to the Giles County School Board, there are 280 students absent Thursday across all five county schools.
School officials say the number of students absent is not terribly out of the ordinary.
There were around 240 students absent in all five schools on a random day last month, according to school officials.
Students were not in session Wednesday following an online article that linked recent shootings in Connecticut and Colorado to Narrows.
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Story from January 2
School will reopen Thursday for children in Giles County. They were supposed to be in class Wednesday following winter break.
Instead, all five county schools were closed after an online article connected recent shootings to schools in Narrows.
It posed the question “Is Narrows the site of the next school massacre?”
Police are stressing that there has been no direct threat made to any school.
But they wanted to exercise caution in light of this article.
So schools were closed for students while teachers came to work and met with police.
It was no ordinary day for teachers in Giles County. There was a strong police presence on Wednesday. Narrows Police Chief Bentley Ratcliffe met with teachers who had a lot of questions.
“If we really felt that it was a threat,” Narrows Police Chief Bentley Ratcliffe said about the questions. “You know, what we were doing to beef up patrol.”
Police and schools took action after a website article suggested schools in Narrows were in danger. The author's theory connected the Batman movie theater shooting to the Connecticut shooting last month and then here to Narrows. In response, Giles County closed school for students on Wednesday.
“Good move. Showing everybody that we're definitely keeping an eye on this thing and we're going to stay vigilant,” Jackie Bailey, a student’s uncle said.
Many parents say the news scared them.
“My little girl is a kindergartener so I don't know what I'd do,” mother Sadie Fisher said.
This mom says her daughter will not be going back to school this week. She worries somebody could read the article and act on it.
“’Cause if it is to happen just because they close it today, if he's going to do it or whoever is going to do it just because they close it today ain't going to stop it,” Fisher said.
