Local school and law enforcement officials are dealing with an increased number of threats against school buildings this school year, which just began last month.
The threats, mainly found on social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, rose following a Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., school officials said.
Most of the threats have not been credible, the officials said.
“What we are all dealing with is the social media companies allowing the garbage to flow on their network to our kids,” Jefferson R-7 School District Superintendent David Haug said. “After the (Sept. 4) school shooting, kids are being bombarded on TikTok and other apps that say, ‘See if your school is next.’ These kids are looking at this, and rumors are starting from there. Until somebody starts addressing the social media companies, their responsibilities and lack of care for our kids, we are going to continue to deal with this.”
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has investigated 13 school threats since the school year began, Capt. Matt Moore said.
During the entire 2023-2024 school year, the Sheriff’s Office investigated a total of 15 threats, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Grant Bissell said.
Of the 13 threats reported this school year, seven were at Fox C-6 schools, two were at Northwest R-1 schools, two were at De Soto School District schools, one was at a Jefferson R-7 school and one was at a Windsor C-1 school, Bissell said.
“The majority of the cases that we have identified making the threats are juveniles,” Moore said. “I don’t think they understand the consequences. We do our best to investigate these all the way through and identify who is making these threats and hold them accountable.”
The threats toward Fox schools were in unincorporated Jefferson County, so the Arnold Police Department’s detective bureau has not investigated any of them so far. However, the department’s school resource officers have worked with the district to investigate potential threats, which turned out not to be credible, Arnold Police Detective Lt. Jeremy Christopher said.
“The majority of these are kids making silly mistakes and not using their best judgment, but we can’t figure that out until we do a thorough investigation,” he said. “It is not anything to be taken lightly.”
Threats toward schools across Missouri have been on the rise, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported.
According to the Highway Patrol’s Courage2Report system, there were 1,044 reported threats toward schools in 2022 followed by 1,581 in 2023. From July 1 through Sept. 17, there were 418 tips about potential threats to schools.
Courage2Report allows anyone to report potential planned attacks, school shootings and possible suicide attempts, as well as bullying or other incidents.
Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Brown said 102 of the tips received so far this year were school shooting threats, and 14 were threats of attacks on schools.
Brown said nine tips about Jefferson County schools had been reported on Courage2Report since school started.
“Tips received by C2R are promptly forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agency with primary jurisdiction and the effected school district,” he said.
Local threats
The Fox, R-7 and Rockwood school districts have investigated recent potential threats to schools, and Fox and Rockwood officials sent letters to families to warn them about the national trend.
Principal Matt Metz of the Fox district’s Antonia Middle School sent two letters to families on Sept. 13 to inform them that school officials worked with the Sheriff’s Office to determine the nationwide threats did not involve the school.
Fox Superintendent Paul Fregeau sent a letter to all parents on Sept. 15 about the social media trend of making threats against schools.
On Sept. 16, Ridgewood Middle School and Fox High School principals sent letters to families about investigations into potential threats against their schools. Both principals reported in follow-up letters that the threats were not credible.
However, on Sept. 17, Ridgewood Principal Courtney Meagher sent letters about a potential threat to the school that resulted in a soft lockdown at the school, which meant those who entered the school were limited but students were allowed to move freely throughout the building. In addition, after-school activities were canceled that day, and multiple Sheriff’s Office deputies were on the school grounds.
The potential threats at Antonia and Ridgewood middle schools were made on social media platforms, and the Fox High threat was sent to some students’ email accounts, the district reported.
Fregeau said in each instance, district and school officials tried to inform families of the situation as soon as possible, but he understands if some parents were frustrated by the time it took to get the messages and the amount of information that was provided.
“We have to assess the situation and then react. We can’t react and then start assessing,” he said. “We have active police investigations and student discipline investigations going on, so you have to limit some of your information because of that. You don’t want to compromise investigations.”
Haug sent a letter to R-7 families to report that a video about burning down a school was shared in a text among a small group of students, adding that the video was not posted on social media.
He said parents and students notified the district about the video, and the Sheriff’s Office investigated it.
“Please help us emphasize that making a threat against a public school, whether it occurs on social media, in conversation, or in any other form has serious legal and disciplinary consequences,” Haug wrote in the letter.
Rockwood Superintendent Curtis Cain sent a letter to families on Sept. 17 about the nationwide school threat trend, adding that no credible threats had been directed toward a district school.
Cain said Rockwood has received threats at multiple schools since the school year began on Aug. 19. However, he said the district would not go into specifics because of ongoing investigations into the incidents.
Cain did say one school dismissed students early one day and canceled after-school activities.
“The safety of our students and staff members is our top priority, and we will always take anything that could be threatening in nature very seriously,” he said. “Each instance results in significant disruptions to the educational process, heightened anxiety among students and staff and the diversion of valuable law enforcement resources.”
Moore said the Sheriff’s Office was called on Sept. 20 to investigate a potential threat at a De Soto district school that appeared to have been made a few days before it was reported.
Officials at Dunklin R-5 and Festus R-6 said their districts have not dealt with threats this school year.
However, they said they are aware of the social media trend that seems to be encouraging the threats.
“It is serious,” Dunklin Superintendent Clint Freeman said. “I don’t think kids really understand the magnitude of when they make the decision to do something like (share or make a threat toward a school). It is not just a school consequence; law enforcement gets involved. It can be a very bad situation for not only the student but the families.”
Northwest Superintendent Jennifer Hecktor said her district has been confused with other districts in the country that have had reports of threats and violence.
“The week after the Winder (Ga.) High School shooting (on Sept. 4), a Northwest High School in Omaha, Neb., had a student shooting between two students on the school campus,” she said. “This incident was not widely reported on national news, but it did circulate among some of our families who reached out to social media to inquire whether or not there was a shooting at our high school.”
Draining
School and law enforcement officials said threats, whether credible or not, take up time and resources because each one must be investigated.
“It is a significant drain when you look at all facets of our school community,” Windsor Superintendent Jason King said. “From an administrative standpoint, there is a tremendous amount of hours and manpower that go into investigating these things.
“For teachers, it is hard to teach kids who are scared or worked up about what may be a rumor or true. For students, if they are scared, worried or there is an excitement about something that may or may not be imminent, they are not in a position to be able to learn the best way they can. For parents, they are concerned because they love their kids.
“It can certainly disrupt the learning environment.”
If a threat is reported and the school has an SRO, it is first reported to that officer, Moore said. After that, the SRO starts an investigation, and detectives and digital forensic investigators may be called in to assist, he said.
Moore also said additional deputies or officers may be temporarily assigned to a school if there is a specific date connected to the threat.
“It can be extremely manpower intensive,” he said of the investigations. “I think that speaks to how seriously we take these sorts of things.”
Moore said the Sheriff’s Office has deputies assigned as SROs for schools in the Windsor, Fox, De Soto, R-7, Grandview and Northwest school districts.
Three Arnold Police officers are assigned as SROs to Fox schools located in the city of Arnold.
Christopher said even though school threat investigations may tie up numerous resources and lots of investigators’ time, that does not prevent Arnold Police from thoroughly investigating every tip.
“At the end of the day, it is a threat until it is not,” he said. “Regardless of how many resources are needed, we will use everything we can to either confirm or disprove the threat.”