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School safety expert talks credibility, complacency with social media threats

Dr. Amy Klinger is with the Educator’s School Safety Network and specializes in active shooter response, crisis planning and vulnerability assessment.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Ohio — Two people have been arrested after making threats to different high schools in central Ohio.

“We’re 20 plus years out of Columbine,” Dr. Amy Klinger said. “Nobody should be surprised that you have the potential for violence in a school because we do.”

Dr. Klinger is the Director of Programs for the Educator’s School Safety Network, which is a non-profit that helps school districts focus on active shooter response, crisis planning and vulnerability assessment.

“It’s really critical for schools to be on the front end of this process rather than waiting and, unfortunately, that’s what we see in many, many schools,” she said.

She’s talking in general, not specific to either recent case at Pickerington North High School or Hamilton Township High School.

She says students, parents and school districts, especially during a pandemic, tend to think of threats as nothing more than a hoax or a way of seeking attention. It’s why she says every threat, credible or not, though it might be a strain on law enforcement resources, should always be thoroughly investigated.

“We need to sort of readjust that narrative and start talking again about violence prevention and being responsive and trying to prevent these incidents and getting on these threats rather than waiting until we have the other end of the continuum, at Oxford (Michigan), when you have an actual incident,” Dr. Klinger said.

In a statement from Pickerington Local Schools, threats made against Pickerington North High School were quickly investigated by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office where a student was taken into custody and charged with making terroristic threats. The sheriff’s office says the threats weren’t credible because the student didn’t have the means to fulfill those threats.

At Hamilton Township, Friday, schools were closed due to the nature of the threat against the high school. Friday morning, a person was arrested in this case and the school district has said there is no further cause for concern.

Both threats were made through social media.

“The impact and the scope of [social media] becomes really outsized,” Dr. Klinger said.

Klinger says there tends to be no middle ground. Some people tend to believe every threat to the letter for truth while others become complacent thinking it could never happen.

Ultimately, she says it’s the districts that suffer.

“There’s anxiety, there’s fear, there’s loss of instructional time, there’s the allocation of resources and there’s undermining the trust between students and parents and school,” she said.

School Safety 101 is an online course, offered through Educator’s School Safety Network that focuses on the common understanding of school threats and starting conversations around solutions.

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