COPYCAT THREATS RISE ACROSS USA
❚ After the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., 638 copycat threats were reported from Feb. 15 to Feb. 27.
Hoax vs. real thing: Schools walk a difficult, and dangerous, line
Breathless and whispering through the phone, a 13-year-old student called for help from her Ohio high school. ❚ “Help,” she said in between whimpers. “He’s got a gun. He’s got the gun in my mouth.” ❚ Anxiety was already running high: It had been only a week after the deadly shooting in Parkland, Fla. Police dispatchers then got three other calls from Withrow University High School in Cincinnati. ❚ But it was all a hoax. ❚ It’s a stunt that other teens and kids across the nation have pulled after tragedies, creating fear in communities and bringing costly investigations by police and federal agents who have no choice but to take the threats with deadly seriousness.
“Everyone knows you don’t say ‘bomb’ in an airport. We have to get to that point with kids. ... We need to make it clear that this isn’t OK, and it is incredibly serious.”
Amanda Klinger Educator’s School Safety Network
The rise in threats after a high-profile mass killing is nothing new. But the incidents are hard to quantify, because they are not tracked nationally by any government agency.
A review by USA TODAY of published accounts, however, paints a picture of a growing problem that is no joke.
More than 130 threats were reported and analyzed by the USA TODAY NETWORK in the nine-day span after the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead. Also, non-profits such as the Educator’s School Safety Network have compiled a list of threats using media reports. The group found that a jarring 638 threats targeted schools in the two weeks after the Parkland shootings, a number they say is probably on the low side.
After the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, panic swept schools from Maine to California, leading to lockdowns, school closures and deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs.
The dramatic increase in threats — from 10 to about 70 a day — has left school administrators and authorities walking a fine line in dealing with a threat’s credibility. It also has worried parents who fear sending their children to school and has shined a spotlight on the legal debate over what penalties kids should face.
At the root of the problem, experts say, are students who are too young to realize the severity of their acts.
“There are usually two common traits in these individuals,” said Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler. “They’re young, and their judgment is poor. I mean, a brain isn’t really fully formed until your early 20s. Then, it’s also people who want to be disruptive and affect how the school is operating.”
Texas, with 55 reports, had the most since the shooting. Next in line are Ohio, California, Florida and Pennsylvania, according to data from the Educator’s School Safety Network, which not only tracks such incidents but also trains schools on how to handle them.
Because of the threats, at least 33 schools closed and more than 15 others were locked down, according to a review of the incidents reported across the USA TODAY NETWORK, which encompasses more than 100 news organizations nationwide.
Some threats were real, and law enforcement was able to thwart the plot, but the larger number of the scares weren’t credible, meaning the person suspected of making the comments wasn’t planning to harm others and didn’t have access to weapons.
“It’s not funny, and I think this should end,” said Bailey Campbell, a student at Central York High School in Pennsylvania. “I want to go back to school, and I want to finish my senior year.”
Her high school, along with others in
“It doesn’t matter where something is happening. (Teachers and students) feel like it’s in their backyard.”
Kenneth Trump National School Safety and Security Services
the region, was closed for three days because of a threat sent by a middle school student. Authorities say the student made the threats simply because she didn’t want to go to school.
Seeing closures like that in Pennsylvania gives a student a sense of power, O’Toole said, which for a kid is huge.
Before taking direct action, it’s important to track the threat and see whether the person behind it even has the means to act, she added. If a threat doesn’t result in the desired effect, a student feels as if he or she failed, thus discouraging the behavior.
Most reported threats aren’t followed by shootings or attacks.
Authorities have been going back and forth about how to deal with such threats. On one hand, an arrest could leave a scar on a student’s future. But the threats might cease if a tough approach is taken.
Threats have been prevalent for decades. After the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, hundreds were sent to schools across the country, leading to more than 350 arrests.
Amanda Klinger, director of operations for the Educator’s School Safety Network, said a few measures could help. Chief among them would be schools communicating with students about the severity of threats and parents reinforcing the message at home.
“Everyone knows you don’t say ‘bomb’ in an airport. We have to get to that point with kids on this issue,” she said. “We need to make it clear that this isn’t OK, and it is incredibly serious.”
Pointing out the consequences of a joke, whether it is jail time or expulsion, also could help. But school privacy laws keep much out of the public eye.
On average, threats usually continue for 10 to 14 days after a major incident, though with social media and the news cycle, that could be longer.
Throughout Pennsylvania, at least 32 threats were reported. They have resulted in closures, lockdowns, bomb-sniffing dogs and extra officers on campus.
Such changes can have a psychological effect, said Kenneth Trump, who heads National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm. Anxiety is already high after witnessing a tragedy such as Parkland, he said.
“It doesn’t matter where something is happening,” Trump said — teachers and students still “feel like it’s in their backyard.”