Violent threats against schools have become an unsettling trend; schools and police are fighting back

SPOKANE, Wash. — The excitement of the new school year has, once again, been overshadowed by gun violence.

In the past two weeks, a 12-year-old was arrested for bringing a loaded gun to Shaw Middle School, followed by a 14-year-old who was arrested for making threats against a teacher and a student involving a rifle and a bomb at Lind-Ritzville High School.

Since the school year began, the Spokane School District has responded to 13 threats, while the Coeur d’Alene School District has dealt with five.

“You can’t put it into words the things they have to deal with,” said Aaron Woods, the campus safety specialist at North Central High School.

Woods described the types of threats the district has had to sift through.

“Most of the time they won’t attach a name, they’ll just say ‘Don’t go to school on Monday’ or ‘Thursday, I’m shooting up the school,'” said Woods. “They’ll send those out and again we have to take those seriously.”

Woods emphasized that while these threats frequently turn out to be non-credible—often originating from distant locations—each one has to be thoroughly investigated because of the reality of school shootings.

Ryan Lancaster from Spokane Public Schools described the strain these incidents put on school resources.

“It is a drain,” said Lancaster during an interview on September 28. “Twelve, in the last week, of these unfounded, vague threats.”

In Coeur d’Alene, Student Resource Officer (SRO) Nate Peterson of Lake City High School highlighted how these threats are amplified through social media.

“Someone will see a post about Lake City, they’ll assume it’s ours, [and] they’ll screenshot it and share it with someone from Lake City,” Peterson explained. Naturally, the people who receive the threat, continue to share it.

Pretty soon, a hoax threat has successfully created a lockdown, and tied up law enforcement resources.

“We had one earlier this year and we found out that it was a threat to Lake City in Florida from last year that had already been dealt with,” said Peterson.

Schools and police are cracking down.

Peterson, alongside Thomas Gandy, the district’s safety director, recently coordinated with law enforcement in another state to apprehend a suspect linked to a threat.

The New York Times reported that in the three weeks following the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, more than 700 children and teenagers have been arrested for making threats.

One of the students arrested: a fourth-grader in Ohio.

“It’s not a joke,” said Gandy. “You can’t say bomb in an airport, and you can’t say shoot in a school. Those are things you just have to know.”

School security has also changed with the times, significantly evolving over the past decade.

Deanne Clifford, principal of Lake City High School, detailed the enhanced safety measures in place at her school.

“We have multiple cameras in every building, we have all kinds of safety measures with entry and exit,” said Clifford. “It’s unbelievable, the programs we’ve built.”

As schools adapt to a changing landscape of threats and gun violence, the role of student resource officers has also transformed. Many SROs nowadays have police, SWAT, or military backgrounds; making them well-equipped to handle emergency situations.

Recently, an SRO at Shaw Middle School successfully confiscated a loaded gun from a student’s backpack, underscoring the importance of vigilant campus security.

Police say if you come across a threat online, don’t share it; it complicates their efforts to find the source of the threat. Instead, report it directly to the police.