ATLANTA — A Senate bill aimed at improving school safety would send a child accused of making a school threat to the adult court system.
Currently, children 13 to 17 accused of making a threat are considered juveniles.
A district attorney could move the child to the Superior Court system if necessary.
Senate Bill 61 would put the child in Superior Court first. Then, a district attorney could move the case to juvenile court after investigating.
If passed, the law would apply in cases of a “…terroristic threat of a school or terroristic act upon a school.”
Steve Gray called it a “step in the right direction.”
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His daughter survived the Apalachee High School shooting five months ago, and he’s been pushing district leaders to support stricter punishments for children who make school threats.
“The more that kids know we are not playing around, you’re going to be treated like an adult, nobody is going to talk to you nice, you’re going to be handcuffed, taken to jail, the whole nine, I think it will make kids think,” Gray told Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco.
Noah Pines is a defense attorney and former prosecutor who worked in Dekalb and Fulton County juvenile court systems.
He said judges in the adult court system have a lot on their calendars.
“Putting juvenile cases in front of them is not going to give them more attention, it’s actually going to give them less attention,” Pine said. “These juvenile courts hold court every day, and they have so much more resources to deal with juveniles.”
Under current law, he argues, cases involving children can be moved to adult court if deemed necessary by attorneys.
“There are laws that handle it already,” said Pines.
He said the wording of the bill concerns him. He gave the following example:
“Two 13-year-olds are playing basketball, and one says to the other, ‘I’m going to kick your ‘A’. That’s a crime of violence, potentially, a terroristic threat, and this bill, if passed, means that kid gets locked up, put in detention, and has to then see a Superior Court,” said Pines. “You say, ‘Oh, that’s not really what it’s for.’ Well, I’m the one who represents those kids who get prosecuted for that all the time.”
Gray said the bill’s language may need to be tweaked, but he is not against a scare tactic.
“It may not fix the problem, but it’s certainly better than doing nothing,” Gray said.
The bill also states that “A transferring student applying for admission to a grade higher than the sixth grade shall as a prerequisite to admission present a certified copy of his or her academic transcript and disciplinary record from the school previously attended.”
Senate Bill 61 has 16 sponsors and co-sponsors. All are Republican except for one Democrat from Macon. Six of the 16 represent the metro Atlanta area.
To read the 16-page bill, click here: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/SB61/2025
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