School Climate & Safety

What Schools Need To Know About Anonymous Threats—And How to Prevent Them

By Caitlynn Peetz — November 20, 2024 3 min read
Tightly cropped photo of hands on a laptop with a red glowing danger icon with the exclamation mark inside of a triangle overlaying the photo
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The number of schools receiving anonymous threats is on the rise, but there are some steps districts can take to reduce the likelihood of being targeted by hoax bomb and shooting threats.

Threatening messages sent via phone or email, posted on social media, or left in writing on school property by an unidentified person can cause major disruptions to school operations.

Though nearly always a hoax, all of them must be taken seriously and shared with law enforcement, and can result in school evacuations, lockdowns, a large police response, or the closing of school altogether, said Don Hough, the deputy associate director of the School Safety Task Force at the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

See Also

Barrow Sheriff Jud Smith provides an update on the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Sept. 4, 2024.
Barrow Sheriff Jud Smith provides an update on the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Sept. 4, 2024.
John Spink/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via TNS
School Climate & Safety Why Responding to Student Threats Is So Complicated
Evie Blad & Olina Banerji, September 5, 2024
8 min read

Most of the threats—which have “significantly increased” in frequency in the past two years, Hough said—are made by students simply trying to disrupt the school day and get a day off.

It should be seen as a sign that the student “needs greater intervention and support from the community,” he said during a webinar on Nov. 18 hosted by AASA, The School Superintendents Association. The threats could also include “swatting,” a term that refers to filing a false report with the aim of stoking chaos and provoking a large law enforcement response.

Much of the response to threats is out of schools’ hands—that’s up to police. But schools can prepare for them and try to prevent them, Hough said.

The payoff from prevention: fewer disruptions, more positive school culture

It’s no small task and it encompasses several key areas, Hough said, but the payoff could mean less disrupted class time, a more positive school culture, and a greater sense of safety.

To prepare, school leaders need to ensure their communities know when and how to report threats, Hough said. Specifically for threats made on social media, students should be reminded to “report, don’t repost,” he said.

“We all know … these threats can spread like wildfire on social media,” Hough said. “Too often, it’s through the school community before we have a handle on what’s said.”

It’s also important to train staff who are most likely to receive the threats—people who monitor emails to the school, control access to outside doors, and answer phone calls—about how to ask probing questions when on the line with someone making a threat.

If someone phones in a bomb threat, for example, the staff member needs to get as much specific information as possible by asking additional questions, like where the device is, when was it placed, and who is calling. Then the staff member needs to be prepared to repeat the information to law enforcement and school leadership, Hough said.

Schools should host “internet safety nights” or provide handouts to families with information about youth social media use, including what apps are available to children and what they’re used for. Schools should also make it clear what kind of behavior is unacceptable on social media, and that making threats online is “no different than making that threat in person,” Hough said.

“Make it clear that they’re taken seriously, that the process is transparent, and those online threats turn into real-world consequences,” he said.

Threats can be a “cry for help”

Often, when students make threats toward their school, it’s a “cry for help,” Hough said, so districts may be well served by prioritizing investments in mental health supports for students both to prevent potential problems in the future and to ensure schools have the ability to connect students to supportive services if they are identified as making a threat.

Perhaps the most important step schools can take now, before they are targeted with an anonymous threat, is to establish positive and collaborative relationships with local law enforcement, Hough said. It is helpful to establish which agency is responsible for which elements of the response, he said. For example, the police may be responsible for investigating the legitimacy of the threat and identifying who made it, while the school is responsible for communicating with families and for discipline, he said.

“There’s no single right answer in responding to these threats,” Hough said. “But too often schools wait until they’ve received a threat to build relationships. A plan has to be in place before that.”

Events

School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Teaching Students to Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically
Ready to embrace AI in your classroom? Join our master class to learn how to use AI as a tool for learning, not a replacement.
Content provided by Solution Tree
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Empowering Students Using Computational Thinking Skills
Empower your students with computational thinking. Learn how to integrate these skills into your teaching and boost student engagement.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Spotlight Spotlight on Reimagining School Safety: A Holistic Approach
This Spotlight will help you examine strategies to create safe learning environments that promote student well-being and academic success.
School Climate & Safety How to Judge If Anonymous Threats to Schools Are Legit: 5 Expert Tips
School officials need to take all threats seriously, but the nature of the threat can inform the size of the response.
3 min read
Vector illustration of a businessman trying to catapult through stack of warning signs.
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety Opinion Restorative Justice, the Classroom, and Policy: Can We Resolve the Tension?
Student discipline is one area where school culture and the rules don't always line up.
8 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
School Climate & Safety Letter to the Editor School Safety Should Be Built In, Not Tacked On
Schools and communities must address ways to prevent school violence by first working with people, says this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week