The district will also consider prohibiting students' cellphone use in an identified safe location during emergencies until police clear the school, officials said. — Image by vecstock on Freepik
The five-fold increase in threats against Houston-area schools over the last month is likely tied to a wave of copycat behaviour following the Sept 4 Georgia high school shooting and the social media environment, experts said.
FBI Houston received 66 school-related threats to life in September, up from 13 that month both in 2023 and in 2022. That high level of school threats led the agency and area school districts to emphasize that a threat, even as a joke, can lead to an arrest. Houston ISD, the state's largest district, said Sept 23 seven student arrests were made in connection to hoax threats.
But the elevated level of school threats is not unique to Houston. Sandy Hook Promise, an organisation dedicated to protecting children from gun violence, saw the largest-ever tip volume nationally in its anonymous school safety reporting system. The system's National Crisis Center observed more than 100 different screenshots of viral threats, according to the organization. The top five reported tips nationally pertain to planned school attacks, weapons, bullying, intent to harm someone, or drug use or distribution.
HISD is one of the districts that uses the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System. More than 400 HISD anonymous reports were made from the first day of the 2023-2024 school year through Sept. 18, according to district records.
A "contagion effect" can sometimes cause an increase in threats after a publicized mass casualty event or school shooting, Texas School Safety Center director Kathy Martinez-Prather, at Texas State University, said.
"I would say that this is a little bit of that, but I think what we're also seeing is just sort of an uptick in general of threats occurring now on an annual basis," Martinez-Prather said. "And some are credible; some are not. But it's extremely important that every school district and local law enforcement, which we have seen, are investigating each one of these threats thoroughly."
She tied the general increase in threats to increases in technology use. She also noted even pranks or jokes will be taken seriously and charged.
"There are very serious crimes that are being committed, whether they're intended to be a hoax or not," Martinez-Prather said at the center that provides training on assessing threats, technical assistance, and research.
Student threats have increased after every high-profile school shooting since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, University of Virginia education professor Dewey Cornell said. Some of the increase is due to copycat behaviour, and some of it is due to increased sensitivity to student behaviour that otherwise would have been ignored or handled differently. With social media, students are more aware of mass violence events and influence one another.
"What is maybe unique about this one, and maybe it reflects the evolution of young people's use of social media, is that the social media communications about this can extend the life of the concern as events are publicized and shared, and as young people become more invested in generating attention to their post by saying one thing or another that is provocative," he said.
The rise in threats has prompted conversations around physical safety measures at schools in HISD. The appointed superintendent and board are considering the viability of metal detectors. The district will also consider prohibiting students' cellphone use in an identified safe location during emergencies until police clear the school, officials said.
"There is no one panacea for school safety, meaning there isn't just one thing that we do to ensure safe and healthy schools," Martinez-Prather said. It's a comprehensive approach. When it comes to school behavioral threat assessment, you're talking about prevention. When you're talking about physical security, that's another aspect to it."
FBI homicide data indicates schools are among the safest places for youth, Cornell said, and, according to CDC statistics, the vast majority of homicides of school-age youth occur outside of school.
School boards are spending billions of dollars on building security measures, he said, and it is more efficient and cost-effective to prevent problems from escalating to violence in the community – on or off campus – with social workers, counsellors and psychologists for students. A counsellor's work is more likely preventing violence in the community than in school, he said.
"What precautions do we need to take to protect the whole community? And what we're doing with school violence is not recognising that it's part of a flood of gun violence that affects the whole community, and just a small portion of it happens to affect the schools," Cornell said regarding the statistics. – Houston Chronicle/Tribune News Service
