Texas Border Business
EL PASO, Texas – In light of the tragic events of this week in Uvalde, Texas, the County Attorney’s Office wants to remind our community of the seriousness of making false threats of school violence on social media.
Under Texas Penal Code Section 42.06, false threats which place a person in fear of imminent bodily injury or cause a law enforcement agency to respond and involve a school campus, are a state jail felony.
The County Attorney’s Office takes threats of violence against our schools, teachers, and children very seriously and prosecutes the cases referred to our office to the fullest extent of the law.
According to the Texas Penal Code Section 42.06, a person commits a crime when:
(a) A person commits an offense if he knowingly initiates, communicates or circulates a report of a present, past, or future bombing, fire, offense, or other emergency that he knows is false or baseless and that would ordinarily:
(1) cause action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies;
(2) place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury; or
(3) prevent or interrupt the occupation of a building, room, place of assembly, place to which the public has access, or aircraft, automobile, or other mode of conveyance.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the false report is of an emergency involving a public or private institution of higher education or involving a public primary or secondary school, public communications, public transportation, public water, gas, or power supply or other public service, in which event the offense is a state jail felony.
We are also urging residents to report threats of violence against students or teachers calling the school police or 9-1-1, and to save the evidence by taking a picture or video.
