Law enforcement and school officials say school shooting threats have skyrocketed since the Apalachee High School tragedy, leading to lockdowns, school closures and juvenile arrests nationwide.
Law enforcement and school officials say school shooting threats have skyrocketed since the Apalachee High School tragedy, with reports coming in from all over the country leading to lockdowns, school closures and juvenile arrests.
In South Carolina, more than 21 students have been charged in connection to making “extremely serious” threats against schools.
And in Florida, more than 50 school shooting threats were made in less than a day, leading to several arrests of kids as young as 11 years old.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County is cracking down on school shooting threats by publicly identifying the students accused of them, including the 11-year-old boy who threatened to carry out a shooting at a middle school in his county.
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“Parents see these threats as quickly as I do. And parents are automatically, ‘What are you doing? What’s going on?’ So now they’re going to get to see who shut their school down,” said Chitwood.
It’s an aggressive tactic some may have criticized, but others say is justified.
“I support Sheriff Chitwood’s press conference and his approach to this effort now. It’s an epidemic, and it’s causing chaos and trauma to schools all across the country,” Max Schachter told Scripps News during an interview.
Schacter’s son was one of the many students murdered in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He says society should hold parents responsible for actions of their children.
In the suburbs of Chicago, where several junior high students were arrested for posting threats against schools on social media, local law enforcement cautioned parents to keep an eye on their kids.
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“Obviously, the Joliet Police Department takes these threats very seriously, and I would like to take this opportunity to strongly recommend that the parents have a serious discussion with their children to reinforce just how dangerous this type of hoax can be and how disruptive it can be and the consequences that will ultimately follow,” said William Evans, chief of the Joliet Police Department.
Many law enforcement and school officials say the majority of these threats are hoaxes, but out of an abundance of caution for the safety of students, they’re investigating the threats, increasing police presence in schools and, if needed, closing down campuses.