A law set to take effect before the 2024-2025 school year will require juvenile courts to revoke driver’s licenses from juvenile offenders who are convicted of threatening schools or school property.
SB 1664 by State Senator Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) will mandate juvenile offenders who are found guilty of threatening mass violence on school property or during school activities must have their driving privileges suspended for one year.
If juvenile offenders are convicted prior to obtaining driving privileges, the law mandates courts preclude offenders from obtaining a driver’s license for one year.
The legislation passed unanimously in the Tennessee Senate and with 91 votes in favor in the State House. It was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee on April 19 and will become effective on July 1.
Lee signed the law just over one year after the tragic 2023 shooting at the Covenant School. The shooter, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, previously attended the Covenant School as a child, but was an adult at the time of the shooting.
A second woman, McKenzie McClure, was similarly arrested by federal authorities for alleged cyberstalking after authorities claim she left a threatening voicemail to Christ Presbyterian Academy, which she attended as a child in the early 2000s. Both Hale and McClure were born biologically female, but identified as transgender men prior to contact with law enforcement.
Because the legislation only revokes the driving privileges of juvenile offenders, it does not appear McClure could lose her driver’s license under the new law.
However, a recent arrest in Maryland suggests current students also contemplate acts of mass violence.
Maryland high school student Andrea Ye was arrested in April after she wrote what she claimed to be a fictional book that police say included an autobiographical character committing a school shooting.
Local police immediately provided details of the document, which they called a manifesto, and revealed Ye allegedly wrote of her desire to “shoot up” her school.
“As I sit in front of my dad’s gun case and stare at the sleep, black gun inside, all I can think about is my finger on the trigger, taking aim, and killing people,” she reportedly wrote.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
suspended driver’s licenses for one year. I’m sorry but they want to kill people and you want to suspend their DL? I’m simple minded and I can come up with something better than that.
Suspend them/they phone privileges while you’re at it.