Four students allegedly plunged their South Carolina high school into lockdown after threatening to kill a teacher.
Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office said that the incident at Edisto High School on 22 September involved the four unnamed teenagers – three boys aged 16, 15, and 14 and a 17-year-old girl – who were taken into custody by the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
The altercation allegedly began when one of the students had an altercation with a teacher, a report obtained byThe Times and Democrat stated.
The school’s resource officer went to go and find the student, who may have fled into the auditorium.
On their way to find the student, the officer, administrators, coaches and counsellors of the school found four students outside a classroom door, the report describes.
“All four students were banging on the door, yelling and threatening to kill the teacher,” the incident report states.
The students were “loud and using profanity” and said they were going to “get” the teacher who had the alleged altercation earlier that day.
The resource officer and administrators asked the students to calm down and enquired why they were threatening the member of staff, but they refused to answer.
The four students were transported to the DJJ after threatening the teacher— (WLTX)
The “school was placed on soft lockdown and dismissal continued without incident,” Orangeburg County School District spokesperson Dr. Erica Taylor said.
The resource officer then phoned up the police, who then detained the four teenagers and transported them to the DJJ.
Approximately 14 per cent of teachers have reported incidents of physical violence from a student, along with 18 per cent of school psychologists and social workers across the US, according to a report published last year by the American Psychological Association.
The report also found that 15 per cent of school administrators and 22 per cent of other school staff had also reported violent incidents from students.
Due to the in-school violence, almost 50 per cent of teachers who took part in the survey said they planned or wanted to quit or transfer jobs.
