The class 'cut-up,' he 'joked' about shooting up a school. He got 5 years in prison.

This week, a Henderson County student with no prior criminal record and who was "spoken highly of" by school officials was sentenced to up to five years in prison for a threat he made in October to "shoot up the school,” the Henderson Gleaner reported.

On Monday in Henderson Circuit Court , Cameron J. Davis, 19, was sentenced to five years in prison on a second-degree terroristic threatening charge, a Class D felony. He pleaded guilty in March, the Gleaner reported.

The newspaper reported that Davis' class at Henderson County High School on Oct. 30 he said , "I'm going to shoot up the school tomorrow."

The incident was reported to school staff who told law enforcement. Davis told police he was joking. Davis' options now include requesting shock probation or parole.

"School officials all spoke highly of him and admit that he's a cut-up," Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Markwell told the Gleaner. However, Markwell was quoted as saying that in the current climate, "you can't say things like that ... We can't take a chance because you don't know who has the intent" to carry out threats.

Davis' case, which originated before this year's fatal school shootings in Benton in Western Kentucky and in Florida, is one of several moving through Kentucky courts involving threats to schools. Jon Akers, executive director of the Kentucky Center for School Safety, said he was made aware of "over 200 school threat cases in our state" from the January shooting at Marshall County High School until mid-March.

Many of the cases involve juveniles and outcomes are not made public. But the situations involving students and other people 18 and older who have been criminally charged with making the threats have shown that school officials, law enforcement, and the court system are aggressively approaching the cases .

Two 19-year-olds in Jessamine County are facing federal charges. And the case of an 18-year-old student at Lexington's Dunbar High School has, as of Wednesday, been sent to the Fayette grand jury.

"I definitely support the school districts' moves of holding these kids accountable according to the law of the land," said Akers. "If we don't have a meaningful consequence for a certain behavior or misbehavior, how can we expect things to be changed? To me it makes good sense that if school officials feel this has risen to the level of a crime that they go ahead and exercise the options they have legally. We had school districts that were experiencing two, three, four threats a day for a while."

A federal grand jury indicted the two Jessamine County teenagers last month after they allegedly used another teen's image on social media to threaten a school district.

Tristan H. Kelly, 19, and Cody T. Ritchey, 19, were indicted on one federal charge related to spreading false information through social media. They were also indicted on a second count charging harassment and intimidation through electronic communication.

Each charge is punishable by five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of no more than three years.

Kelly and Ritchey were arrested in February on state charges of terroristic threatening. The two, who have pleaded not guilty, allegedly used a photo of a boy with a handgun accompanying text that said “Be ready for school monday Jessamine County.” In reality, no classes were scheduled for Feb. 19, the Presidents’ Day holiday. The two used a social media image of an individual who “was not involved with the threats,” Nicholasville police spokesman Kevin Grimes said at the time.

In Lexington, an anonymous tip to a school safety tipline took police to the door of a 18-year-old Paul Laurence Dunbar High School student. He was charged with a felony, and police took a rifle and about 500 rounds of ammunition from his home.

Timothy Felker was charged with second-degree terroristic threatening, which is punishable by between one and five years in jail. Felker has been arraigned in Fayette County District Court and his case sent to the Fayette grand jury.

At least one such charge in the state has been dismissed so far.

In a Knox County case, police have said two girls ages 13 and 16 came up with the idea to send out the threat in hopes of getting school canceled, and were charged with second-degree terroristic threatening. Their names were not released and the status of their cases are not known because they are juveniles, but a third person, 19-year-old Megan Scott of Corbin, who attended Knox Central High School, was charged with complicity in the case because she allegedly knew about the threat but failed to notify authorities. Scott's charges were dismissed at the district court level.

Jackie Steele, Commonwealth's Attorney for Knox and Laurel counties, told the Herald-Leader that "knowledge alone is not an act, to be charged criminally there has to be an act."

Steele said that he has previously prosecuted school threat cases, but since the fatal school shootings in Western Kentucky and Florida this year, "I've been more alert (to the cases) and detail oriented."

Specifically, in the past, Steele said as commonwealth attorney he might not have been notified of a school threat case, but now "I would get a phone call pretty quick if there is an issue going on in the school system ."

"I get in the case earlier, I have more details available to me and I understand more things that are going on," said Steele.

Akers said the statewide attention given to school safety this year and the student activism to reduce school violence has been a good thing for Kentucky schools.

"I don't think this is going to go away for a long while and I'm glad about that," Akers said.

Akers said school districts are not only trying to enhance school building safety and security, but they are reaching out to parents to ask that they share information that they hear at home and asking that parents monitor what their kids are doing online.

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 4:25 PM with the headline "The class 'cut-up,' he 'joked' about shooting up a school. He got 5 years in prison.."