AUSTIN, Texas — As Hays CISD confirmed a sixth student has been arrested in the district after recent threats to campuses, authorities are taking a united stand to address the recent surge.
Austin ISD hosted several districts, along with the Travis County District Attorney José Garza, and Austin police leaders, to talk about the severe consequences students could face, regardless of their age.
AISD Police Chief Wayne Sneed shared that 30 threats were made against AISD schools just last week.
“Every single threat we encounter, we'll investigate and we will pursue it until it's no longer a threat,” Sneed said.
The Travis County District Attorney's office is taking them just as seriously. Garza said even fake threats have real consequences.
“If you make a threat against a school, you will be found, you will be arrested and you will be held accountable,” Garza said.
According to Garza, he has more than 30 cases pending now, with just two involving adults. Garza said while they prosecute threats every year, the sheer volume of what they're seeing now is alarming.
“Firearms are just too readily available to juveniles and to people who possess them illegally,” Garza said. “So as long as that is the case, we're going to have to take these cases incredibly seriously.”
Garza said regardless of age, if you commit a crime, you will be arrested. He also mentioned they'll be going through each case individually and determining whether there’s probable cause, since there’s a wide range of conduct being investigated.
However, Garza said there's a difference in how adults and minors are prosecuted.
“The process moves more quickly than the adult process does. Our judiciary or judges in the juvenile system have far more discretion than judges do in our adult system,” Garza said.
According to Garza, juveniles have specific protections under family code. Once a minor is detained, they have a hearing to assess their risk to their community and if they should stay detained. They will have hearings every 10 days after. Garza said the juvenile justice system is meant to help rehabilitate the youth.
“We're striking a balance of keeping our community safe and ensuring that young people have a full opportunity to thrive because that is what's in the best interest of our public safety,” Garza said.
AISD’s police force said this is a community problem and it's going to take the community to fix it. They say parents should have conversations with their kids about what's appropriate to joke about and what isn't.
They also encourage others to step forward if they hear or see anything suspicious.