CUMMING — The mint chocolate chip milkshake that brought authorities and handcuffs to the front of Cumming Elementary School earlier this month may be the most expensive snack of a local 19-year-old’s life.
Nicholas Allen Jones may not face jail time. But authorities said his $11,715 bond and reimbursing the damage done March 3 when he reportedly threw a Steak ’n Shake milkshake at a passing Otwell Middle School bus on Dahlonega Highway will hopefully deter him from ever doing so again.
After the shake shattered his driver side window, the bus driver pulled into the parking lot of nearby Cumming Elementary. The some 30 student passenger had to be transferred to a different bus.
No one was injured in the incident, school officials confirmed, though it could have ended much worse.
“School buses are built better than most cars,” said Doug Rainwater, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. “What [Jones didn’t] realize is that instead of just going the speed of your car, you add the speed of the other car and combine the two.
“If they’re going 40 mph, it might not seem like too much. But that bus is also doing 40, and you got a combined speed of 80.”
Jones, who threw the shake on a dare from a friend, reportedly called his mother and wrote an apology letter to the school system before his arrest.
Rainwater said Jones will be required to reimburse the school board for the cost and labor of replacing the window.
According to the school system, the bill was $120.
If he has no prior charges, Jones will probably be ordered to complete community service and be placed on probation.
“Usually in this type of case they take care of the damages, unless it’s something major,” Rainwater said. “But the bond was so high because destruction of government property is a felony. Most misdemeanors are around $1,000.”
Had he thrown the frosty treat, which costs about $3.50, from his pickup truck at a “smaller car, you’re going to hurt somebody,” Rainwater said, especially if it had splattered across a windshield.
“There’s a snowball effect that could be very dangerous,” he said. “Life threatening, actually.”