{"id":180,"date":"2026-05-23T11:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=180"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:07:08","slug":"a-tennessee-school-agreed-to-pay-100000-to-family-of-11-year-old-student-arrested-under-school-threats-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=180","title":{"rendered":"A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Chattanooga, Tennessee, public charter school has agreed to pay the family of an 11-year-old boy $100,000 to settle a federal lawsuit claiming that it wrongfully reported the student to police for an alleged threat of mass violence.<\/p>

Read more Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing<\/a><\/p>\n

The incident happened at the beginning of the school year when Junior, who is autistic, overheard two students talking. (We are using a nickname to protect his privacy.) As Junior later described it, one asked if the other was going to shoot up the school tomorrow. Junior looked at the other student, who seemed like he was going to say yes, and answered yes for him. Students then reported that Junior had threatened to shoot up the school.<\/p>\n

Administrators said he could return to school the next day, but hours later, a sheriff\u2019s deputy tracked him down at a family birthday dinner and handcuffed him in the restaurant parking lot.<\/p>\n

ProPublica and WPLN News wrote about the case last October as part of a larger investigation into a new law in Tennessee making threats of mass violence at school a felony.<\/p>\n

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Read More<\/h3>\n
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\nAn 11-Year-Old Denied Making a Threat and Was Allowed to Return to School. Tennessee Police Arrested Him Anyway.<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

According to the settlement, Chattanooga Preparatory School also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including reporting only \u201cvalid\u201d threats to police and differentiating between \u201cclearly innocuous statements\u201d and \u201cimminent\u201d violence.<\/p>\n

A federal judge will hold a final hearing on the settlement on July 1. According to the family\u2019s lawyer, this is the first known monetary settlement in a case challenging this law. Chattanooga Prep did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the news organizations.<\/p>\n

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Junior\u2019s mother, Torri, said the settlement is \u201cbittersweet.\u201d He still gets fearful when he sees police cars, reminded of the evening he was taken to juvenile detention. We are only using Torri\u2019s first name at her request, to prevent her son from being identifiable. His case was dismissed in juvenile court in December.<\/p>

Read more Tennessee\u2019s Law on School Threats Ensnared Students Who Posed No Risks. Two States Passed Similar Laws.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Torri said she is happy that employees at the school will get training on how to do better in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone \u2014 any child, anyone, any parent \u2014 to go through it or witness it,\u201d she said. \u201cOther kids will be more protected if they are ever put in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Junior\u2019s lawyers argued in the lawsuit that the school was at fault for reporting him to police as though he had made a valid threat, while knowing he had not. \u201cInstead of reporting only valid threats of mass violence to police, Chattanooga Prep reports all threats to law enforcement regardless of validity,\u201d an amended version of the lawsuit against the school reads. The school did not file a response to the legal complaint.<\/p>\n

During the last legislative session, advocates for children with disabilities testified about problems with the law \u2014 but lawmakers did not alter the existing statute. Instead they added another similar statute to the books, which could open the door for children to be charged with harsher penalties.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s lawyer, Justin Gilbert, said he hopes this settlement will force lawmakers to pay attention and make necessary changes to the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonetary figures \u2014 for better or for worse \u2014 can be a driver for policy change, and sometimes legislators can react to that, school districts can react to that,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cThen that results in a deeper look at the settlement terms and what kind of training is necessary to hopefully prevent these kids from being arrested and expelled unnecessarily.\u201d<\/p>

Read more 100 Students in a School Meant for 1,000: Inside Chicago\u2019s Refusal to Deal With Its Nearly Empty Schools<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the settlement, the Chattanooga charter school also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including differentiating between \u201cclearly innocuous statements\u201d and \u201cimminent\u201d violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-education"],"yoast_head":"\nA Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law - Moving Services America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=180\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law - 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