December 21, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The 13-year-old DeKalb West School student who allegedly threatened to bring a gun to school last week made his first court appearance on Thursday, December 16
The 8th grader, charged in a juvenile petition with threat of assault to shoot a teacher, stood before Judge Bratten Cook, II with his family and attorney Brandon Cox.
The judge continued the case until late January pending the results of a psychological evaluation to be done on the boy. Although he has been released from juvenile detention, the youth will remain under house arrest and be home schooled pending the outcome of the case. He is not to show up at school or leave home without his parents.
The boy was taken into custody by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Sunday, December 12 after investigators learned that the 8th grader was threatening to bring a gun to school to shoot a teacher.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said the boy, who lives within two miles of the school at Liberty, was taken from his home and placed in a juvenile detention center in Cookeville.
“I immediately got the school’s SRO and a detective to go find the child. He was at home with his mother and stepfather. The SRO and detective questioned the boy and he admitted to making the threat although he said it was done in anger and that he really didn’t mean it after he calmed down,” said Sheriff Ray.
Both the SRO and detective conducted a sweep of the boy’s home and no weapons were found. Sheriff Ray said the parents were cooperative. There are no plans to file charges against them.