Uptick in false threats statewide cause school-day disruptions
A seemingly never-ending string of threats of violence against schools has been plaguing districts across the state for the last three weeks now – part of a disturbing national trend of late.
From Snapchat photos and TikTok posts of weapons with vague threatening messages to local incidents of students vocalizing threats to their schools – districts across the state have been dealing with all sorts of incidents that have been causing fear and anxiety to spike among students, parents, and school staff.
This latest round of threats kicked off following the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia. The threats here, hoaxes or not, are coming with consequences for students involved – some as young as elementary age. Dozens of children and teens have been arrested for making threats against schools statewide.
This number of threats – some back-to-back from some school corporations – have led schools to increase police presence and, in some cases, temporarily close. While many districts did continue to hold classes amid the ongoing threats, attendance rates plummeted for several.
In the age of proliferate use of social media, school districts face an increasingly complex challenge in maintaining a safe and secure learning environment. Districts are toeing the line between being transparent with the community when there are threats investigated, but also at the same time, not constantly instilling fear and panic into students and their parents . . . which greatly affects school environments for days after threats are made.
The full extent of the number of threats, arrests, and security incidents just within the last two weeks can be seen in our “IN School Health & Safety” section in this issue, which spans multiple pages. There, we lay out and delve into specifics of individual incidents.
“It’s an incredible detriment to the learning,” Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation Superintendent Tim Edsell tells us of the effect of handling school threats. The district in Whiteland dealt with back-to-back threats over multiple days in the last two weeks.
A threat pulls the focus away from the purpose of school, which is education. Dr. Edsell adds, “All of the emotion, the anxiety, the fear, and the unknown – it impacts not just our students, but their families and our faculty as well.”
When a 911 call reported threatening language between two Clark-Pleasant Middle School students on September 12, it set off a chain reaction that reverberated throughout the entire school community. As administrators worked to investigate the claims and ensure safety, they found themselves grappling with the far-reaching impact of such threats.
The accused students were kept off campus, but rumors about the alleged altercation between them spread. “It was a lot of rumors and allegations, but it wasn’t an in-person threat between the two students,” Dr. Edsell describes.
Immediately after the local risk began to subside, then Clark-Pleasant, along with dozens of other schools were infiltrated with widespread social media threats.
These social media threats, featuring stock images of weapons and captions targeting Clark-Pleasant Middle School, quickly spread across Johnson County. Similar images also spread across the state, with different messages attached targeting specific schools. Dr. Edsell notes that the messages were also being shared and reposted on various platforms . . . with some even appearing as a TikTok trend, reaching an estimated audience of more than a million viewers, he heard.
The effect on student attendance was immediate. Edsell reports that on Monday, September 16, following the threats, the school’s attendance rate plummeted to 75%, a contrast to the typical mid-90s percentage. The numbers returned to normal the following Tuesday.
Other schools have experienced similar effects on attendance amid widespread and local threats.
Hamilton Heights School Corporation saw hundreds of students miss school for two days following a shooting threat made to the district on September 17. The threat appeared to also be that familiar ominous Snapchat photo of stock gun images with a specific message reading, “Hamilton Heights will be shot up tomorrow.”
Beech Grove City Schools, which faced threats that led to the arrests of two students, reports its attendance dipped slightly the day or two immediately following the threats but then stabilized, Caroline Beck reports for the Indianapolis Star. However, other districts in Marion County did not report significant drops in attendance after also receiving threats, Beck relays.
Clark-Pleasant excused students who chose to stay home amid the threats to the middle school. Superintendent Edsell admits it’s a difficult situation, especially during a time when the state is pushing to remedy high rates of chronic absenteeism. Students need to be at school . . . but can they be forced to attend when they fear for their safety?
“We totally respect and understand that parents have to make that decision because they’re parents and they want to do also, what is best for their own children,” Edsell said. “But it’s incredibly hard when you have school, you have police presence, you follow your safety procedures, and yet you still have to honor those parental decisions.”
We also had one veteran shift commander for a county sheriff’s department (in a jurisdiction not mentioned here) tell us that there are many school threats – including some in that officer’s county this month – that parents will never hear about because they are either handled confidentially or deemed non credible.
Panic over school threats tends to spread like wildfire over social media.
We caught wind of posts from parents in nearby district Center Grove Community School Corporation posting they planned to keep their children home because of threats to schools within the same city, despite reassurance in messages from Center Grove administration that threats were not made directly to the district. One parent post then led to a number of comments from other parents wondering if they too, should keep their children home for the day.
Beck for the Star also finds similar anecdotes from parent Makayla Clemons, whose daughter is a first grader in Indianapolis. She weighs the choice of simply missing a day of school to risking her daughter’s life. “If I’m getting this email … then I know there’s still a (small) chance of me sending her to school and then, bam, (shooters) picked her school that day,” Clemons tells the Star. She adds that “My last thought was her attendance.”
Social media is almost like a double-edged sword in these situations. The growth in use in the last decade makes it easier for anyone to make an anonymous threat to a school, from anywhere, real or not. To Clark-Pleasant’s Edsell, its social media that has made the school threat issue even more prevalent.
“It continues to evolve and change and get more sophisticated,” Dr. Edsell observes. “I mean, (this time) was all Snapchat, so if you know how to use it, disappears with no footprint. And that is mind-blowing, but that also is what, you know, instigates and makes issues like these threats, just give all and just skyrocket.”
On the other side, social media does help in the “see something say something realm,” as schools use it often to communicate with the community about potential threats under investigation. Families also find comfort in being able to quickly pass on
information about threats to others in their circle on social media.
However, that communication also leads to rumors and panic spreading, making it easy for a threat to get out of hand. Hence, why, as we mentioned, there’s a fine line districts are walking in wanting to be transparent, without causing panic.
In that realm, you may recall in our last issue, that the Jeffersonville Police Department calls on parents to stop servicing almost as instigators in spreading rumors of threats on social media. The agency urged students and parents to report anything they hear to law enforcement, rather than spread it on the internet.
The department stated in a post online that “This is a distraction for investigators and causes delays in our ability to navigate these situations,” adding that “individuals who continuously communicate misinformation on social media will be identified and added to our official police report, which will be forwarded to the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office for review.”
So, what’s the solution? For now, schools are trying to take a firm stance by pushing the message to parents and students that making threats is serious business. As we’ve reported, dozens of students involved in making threats this month have been arrested.
“It’s taxing, and we know we want to keep the kids safe,” Dr, Edsell explains. “A strong stance has to be made and sent to these culprits that think it’s funny or whatever. It’s just flat-out unacceptable.
In the longer-term approach, Edsell and the leaders at Clark-Pleasant are focused on educating students on responsible social media use and conflict resolution. They hope to set a precedent that will deter future incidents and restore a sense of safety and security within the school.
“People need to know how to work through conflicts with each other, whether it’s verbally or socially or electronically,” Dr. Edsell asserts.
What could be the long-term approaches for schools, is it increasing police in the halls at schools? Metal detectors at entrances, like we’ve seen in Lawrence Township? Do schools need to pinpoint more services for mental health? Will the state’s school cell phone ban help with threats spreading on social media?
Pretty much all of the questions we just posed would likely require money if schools already aren’t investing their resources into such services.
Perhaps a solution is also in how schools address handling discipline . . . which happens to be a study topic assigned to the Interim Study Committee on Education this year, so maybe a legislative solution will emerge there. The broader topic of discipline doesn’t address just students threatening to commit school shootings, but it could be a means to finding an end solution.