Jourdanton ISD threat securedFree Access


Rebecca Pesqueda

Staff Writer

Early on Tuesday, the Jourdanton Police Department responded to Jourdanton High School for a report of a student who allegedly made threats to commit acts of violence with a firearm on JISD property. While making these threats, this individual showed fellow students pictures of an AK-47 firearm that he allegedly had access to.

Responding officers interviewed the suspect as well as school staff and other students who witnessed and/or heard these statements being made, and gathered other evidence that gave validity to these threats.

Police placed the student in question under arrest and charged him with the offense of “Terroristic Threats”, a 3rd degree felony. He was magistrated and transported to the Atascosa County Jail with a bond of $250,000. If convicted, this student could face 2-10 years in a state prison and a $10,000 fine.

While at no point was a firearm found on school property, both JISD Administration and the Jourdanton Police Department treat any threat of violence to our schools very seriously and will use every asset available to keep our campuses safe for students, staff and visitors.

As soon as Jourdanton ISD Superintendent Theresa McAllister was made aware of the situation this afternoon, she conferred with Jourdanton Police Chief Eric Kaiser. There was no imminent threat to the students at Jourdanton ISD. Both the school and the police posted on Facebook and their websites about the situation shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

“We are not going to take this lightly. We care about the safety of our kids,” said McAllister. She and Chief Kaiser met earlier this morning for two hours to discuss ways to handle situations just like this.

“Our approach is to have JPD officers on campus as much as possible during the school day, along with a full time School Resource Officer assigned to JISD,” said Chief Kaiser, “This hybrid approach using both city officers and school administrators has been a successful one thus far. The ‘see something/say something’ works. The public is our biggest asset.”

Chief Kaiser also credited the great working relationship that Jourdanton ISD and Jourdanton PD share as one of the factors in resolving situations like this so quickly. JISD and JPD are in regular communication with each other on issues involving campus safety and security.

Should you hear anyone make threats of any type to our schools, please contact the Jourdanton Police Department at 830-769-2241 or Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office 24 hour dispatch at 830-769-3434.

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