NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Chattanooga school has agreed to pay the family of a student charged with a felony under Tennessee's threats of mass violence law $100,000, which is likely the first successful lawsuit over the legislation in the state.

According to the lawsuit, a student at Chattanooga Prep asked if another student was going to "blow up the school, to which an 11-year-old who is autistic responded, "Yeah."

The attorney for the family of the 11-year-old, Justin Gilbert, argued the child had no information that the other student was truly intending to blow up the school; his statement was limited by his social awareness and judgment due to his disability.

“The statement was what is known as a transient threat, or a statement made by a student with a disability who had no awareness of a real threat," Gilbert told News 2.

Despite that, the lawsuit said the 11-year-old was sent to the principal's office, then to the school resource officer, and was ultimately charged with a felony under Tennessee's school threat law, which went into effect last year.

“The law passed by the state legislature is really aimed at getting to true threats, true emergencies, school shooters, everyone knew in this case that’s not the case here," Gilbert said.

In addition, Gilbert told News 2 Chattanooga Prep failed to conduct a threat assessment, required by state law, which would have determined the child had no intent or ability to carry out any mass violence.

Chattanooga Prep agreed to pay the family $100,000 and require staff to undergo training on how to handle similar situations in the future.

“That training is detailed, and it seems to me is sorely needed in Tennessee," Gilbert said. “What the lawsuit is trying to do is make sure that valid cases of threat are acted upon immediately, but the vast majority of these invalid threats are dealt with without harming students.” 

Gilbert added he's currently representing multiple families who've experienced something similar.

JC Bowman, executive director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee, and a former special needs teacher, believes a lack of training may have been a factor in this case.

“We are big on making sure we take every single threat seriously at a school. That being said, you have to take into account the child," Bowman said. “That’s where I think the real fear is that we’re so blind to the letter of the law that we don’t look into the spirit of the law.” 

According to Bowman, threats of mass violence at schools have increased since the law was passed. However, he said it's important that schools and law enforcement investigate each one and determine their legitimacy before making an arrest.

“There’s a hard lesson in this and we should all take in education take a look at this and make sure we’re doing common sense polices that does in fact protect all of our kids, but make sure that special needs kids or kids that are making innocuous statements are considered weighed and determined whether they have the capacity to carry it out and whether it was a serious threat," Bowman said.

News 2 reached out to Chattanooga Prep for a statement on the settlement but hadn't heard back by the time this article was published.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/tn-school-district-pays-100k-to-family-in-school-threat-lawsuit/