New details have emerged regarding two separate incidents that took place at East Limestone and Clements High School last week.

According to Rusty Bates, transportation and safety director for Limestone County Schools, a student at Clements was suspended Thursday, Feb. 15, after making two comments “about school shootings that were disturbing but not considered direct threats.”

“The comments alarmed us, so we started an investigation and got the school’s (security) resource officer involved, but we didn’t deem the comments an arrest-able offense,” Bates said.

The student is currently in the custody of his parents, awaiting a disciplinary hearing.

On Friday, just two days after the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, two 14-year-old East Limestone High School students, one male and one female, were arrested for making terrorist threats. The East Limestone students also remain in the custody of their parents.

The school district follows specific procedures when dealing with students who commit serious violations such as making threats.

Bates said the Clements student will stand before a disciplinary committee as soon as this week. This committee is made up of a group of county administrators that changes weekly. Their job is to consider each student’s case and make disciplinary recommendations, including suspension, placement in alternative school and expulsion.

According to Karen Tucker, director of technology, “We do not have discipline based on what the sheriff’s department does but based on what happened in the school.”

That means the East Limestone students who were arrested will also face inner disciplinary hearings.

If the disciplinary committee determines that a student should be removed from campus and sent to alternative school, they can either send them to the Limestone County Alternative School or the Colt Academy. The latter is housed in the old elementary wing at Clements High School.

“The alternative school is used to discipline a kid to correct their behavior and get them back into local schools,” Bates said. “Colt is generally for rehabilitation of a behavior and is more of a long-term solution.”

Students placed at the Limestone County Alternative school must provide their own transportation to and from school and are not allowed on other county school campuses or allowed to attend school-related activities such as sporting events, according to Bates.

The number of students at the Limestone County Alternative School fluctuates, ranging from 20–30 students per day.

In extreme cases, the disciplinary board may not give a student the option of attending an alternative school but rather recommend that they be expelled. Cases like these must be reviewed by Superintendent of Limestone County Schools Dr. Tom Sisk and the Limestone County School board.

In the past two years, Bates only recalls one student who was expelled in this manner.

“We do extend some school-based services to these students like sending them home-bound teachers once a week,” he said.

Bates added the district is equipped to provide counseling and other mental health services to students whose behavior may be related to a mental illness.

However, perhaps the best resource is other students.

“We are constantly evaluating the safety at our schools,” Bates said. “Our kids are our best allies. If they hear anything, any kind of clue or hint, they need to take it seriously and tell someone so we can handle it.”