The recent rash of threats of violence at schools across West Virginia needs to be explored and confronted, and Gov. Jim Justice’s announcement that a safety task force has been launched is a good place to start.
Believe it or not, acknowledging threats of violence in schools used to be a dicey topic.
Not so long ago, it wasn’t uncommon for newsrooms to get calls from parents who were irate because the publication didn’t mention a bomb threat that had closed the school for the day and prompted an investigation. The sentiment was understandable. For parents, it was troubling to have a school day ended while police searched the building.
However, there was a concern among some publications and law enforcement agencies that giving public attention to these types of threats was not only providing those who made the threats what they wanted, but would also prompt more threats in the region. Even without news coverage, these things seemed to go in cycles with one incident creating copycat cases at other nearby schools.
This was a time before social media and, even though school shootings were an emerging and alarming trend, bomb threats were almost always hoaxes. The rule of thumb for many media outlets was if there was nothing to an incident beyond a false threat, the only reason to report on it was if an arrest had been made.
Suffice to say, the landscape on this issue has changed dramatically over the past 20 years or so. The aforementioned addition of social media provides an outlet for red flags and endless rabbit holes convenient for isolation and radicalization (along with step-by-step instructions for making explosives, handling firearms or planning an attack).
That’s not to say a disaffected student didn’t know how to create an improvised explosive device or couldn’t get their hands on a firearm prior to 2005 or so, or that threats weren’t taken just as seriously. But the issue has definitely gotten more complicated and omnipresent in the intervening years.
The situation in West Virginia is certainly disturbing. Two eighth graders at Elkview Middle School were arrested and charged with felony counts of making terrorist threats earlier this week. Last week, two other middle schoolers, one a student at Dupont and the other at Sissonville, were charged with the same thing. Meanwhile, South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä High School was under a brief lockdown Monday, when loose .22-caliber bullets were found in a bathroom stall.
Statewide, there were 143 incidents of terroristic threats against a school from Sept. 5 through Sept. 16, according to the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security. Threats have been made against schools in 33 of the state’s 55 counties, and 15 people — a mix of adults and juveniles — have been arrested so far as a result.
The situation is, frankly, out of control. The job of the new task force, at least initially, is to analyze the threats and arrests to gather data that will hopefully be helpful going forward. The state also is forming a centralized communications hub so that responses to threats can be more coordinated and have the appropriate resources. Hopefully, this proves useful in preventing school violence and holding those who would threaten it accountable, regardless of whether those who make such threats actually plan on following through.
