1 of 3 | Fourteen-year-old student Jose Ortiz accepts an embrace from chaplain Ronald Clark at a makeshift memorial on Sept. 5, one day after a deadly school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE
Sept. 23 (UPI) — Threats against schools are increasing following a shooting at a high school in Barrow County, Ga. It is a recurring phenomenon that follows many tragic events.
Four people were killed in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia on Sept. 4, including 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. A 14-year-old boy was taken into custody after allegedly bringing an AR-15-style rifle to the school and opening fire.
School shootings like the one in Georgia can spark copycats, leading to a rise in threats against schools, Amanda Klinger, Educator’s School Safety Network director of operations.
“We saw this after Parkland and after Uvalde. We see an uptick both from outside actors and also a percentage of those threats come from students,” Klinger said.
An alarming rash of threats has been reported across the United States since the Georgia shooting. Between Sept. 4 and 17, 98 juveniles were detained in the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice on charges of terrorist threats and school disruption, according to Glenn Allen, communications director. Fifty of them have since been released. The juveniles came from 56 of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Students as well as people outside of the school system see the chaos and disruption caused by mass shootings. While they may not intend to go through with a similar act or have the means to do so, making a threat can give them a sense of excitement, Klinger said.
“To the adolescent brain that is more exciting than a typical Tuesday,” she said. “The motivation may not be to actually do violence but to cause chaos, anxiety and disruption.”
Nationally there were more than 1,900 threats against schools during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a report from Educator’s School Safety Network. Threats trended downward from 2018 through the COVID-19 pandemic but have begun to slightly trend upward in the last two years. Violent incidents have increased by 83% since what the study refers to as “pre-pandemic school years.”
Threats are most frequently made through social media, increasing steadily since 2015. Snapchat is one of the channels that has commonly been used in these instances. Schools in Massachusetts, Oklahoma and New York responded to threats made on Snapchat last week.
West Virginia recorded more than 130 threats to 69 schools across the state as of Monday. Schools went into lockdown and were later dismissed in the Memphis, Tenn., area on Wednesday due to multiple threats.
Matt Anderson, head of the Iowa Governor’s School Safety Bureau, told UPI more threats have been reported in his state this school year than at this point in previous school years. More than 10 arrests have been made in Iowa, more than all of last year.
These reports to the Iowa school safety bureau come from other agencies, such as local law enforcement and sometimes agencies outside of the state. For instance, law enforcement in New Jersey, Louisiana and Florida have investigated threats before discovering they were targeted at communities in Iowa that bear the same names.
Anderson said incidents like the shooting in Georgia draw the attention of students, teachers and parents nationally. With these incidents in mind, people become more vigilant about reporting potential threats.
“Our society and country as a whole has had enough,” Anderson said.
Even in the cases that the threats are deemed not credible, the community and the school system are still affected. School staff and law enforcement must treat every threat as though it is legitimate, Anderson said.
“The duty to provide a safe facility is high,” he said. “When it comes to something like that, the superintendent, principal, counselor, school therapists, it’s going to be touching all their hands. Overall the impact of the school community itself is quite large. That’s not addressing the internal fears for teachers and as the community finds out they have to deal with this issue, every parent gets anxiety. The shockwaves on the school system and the community itself are big.”
Determining the legitimacy of a threat is not a clear-cut process, Anderson said. Each case carries its own nuances. Officials will determine if the person who made the threat has access to weapons. They must also determine the context of the threat.
Some investigations, Anderson recalls, found that the threat amounted to a comment that was taken out of context. In one instance, a student was responding to another in a message about how they could feel safe at school. They responded that they would need a “backpack full of guns” to feel safe at school.
“The totality of the circumstance can help us to decide if this is a credible threat, typically resulting in charges,” Anderson said.
A major deterrent to making threats like these is not only punishment but making that punishment transparent. When a hoax happens, Anderson and other officials around the country emphasize getting the news out that the perpetrators were punished.
Making threats against schools or other public places is a federal crime, whether it is issued through social media, text or email. Doing so can result in up to five years in federal prison. There may also be state or local laws broken resulting in further penalties.
“The FBI takes potential hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. We work closely with our law enforcement partners to determine their credibility, share information, and take appropriate investigative action,” the FBI said in a statement to UPI. “As always, we encourage members of the public to remain vigilant and immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
Klinger encourages schools, local and state governments and law enforcement officers to remain vigilant about threats against schools and seek interventions. She acknowledges that oftentimes an event like the shooting in Georgia sets lawmakers and other officials into action. After some time passes, the intention to follow through eases.
“I don’t like that it takes tragedies to make people think about this,” Klinger said. “The biggest thing is to implore educators and parents to advocate for thoughtful, intentional, strategic improvements.”
Along with reporting threats or anything of concern to law enforcement, Anderson encourages parents to be closely involved with their children and check in on them about what they are doing and seeing on their social media accounts.
“The biggest thing right now is to be aware,” Anderson said. “If you see something, report it and be willing to be involved with your kids and talk with them ahead of time. That is the best way to get in front of it.”