Student Charged For Possession of Explosive Components

A Cookeville High School student has been charged with possession of explosive components.

Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said his department investigated the student’s home after receiving information that the student possessed the materials to build an explosive device. Farris said his department found no information that would indicate the student had plans to harm a specific person or school with the materials.

“Hopefully it was more of an experiment than it was anything,” Farris said. “And so that’s the way we’re looking at it. We’re just simply acting on the safety side here and making sure that everyone knows that putting those components together was certainly illegal and we just don’t need to take any chances for that.”

Farris said the materials have been safely confiscated and disposed of. Farris said the student’s parents have been fully cooperative with law enforcement throughout the process.

“We’ll be working with the juvenile judge and certainly the parents of this student and see if we can get this resolved in a good matter to, a good outcome to make sure that this doesn’t happen again and none of this material finds its way back together,” Farris said.

Farris said the student was home because of an unrelated suspension due to a THC vaping pen. Farris said it will be up to the school system to decide whether the student can return to school.

“The student is not in custody, let me make clear of that,” Farris said. “He has been charged but he’s not in custody. There’s several ways to do that. In this particular situation with communication with the district attorney’s office and the parents and talking with the judge, he’s still under his parents’ direction right now. So he’s at home and we have no plans to incarcerate the student at this time.”

Farris said his office called the Tennessee Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit in to help with the initial investigation.