Threats to Kansas City Area Schools Could Cost Districts Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars | KCUR

This month, students at Leavenworth High School were placed on lockdown after a teenager allegedly threatened the school.

Kansas City Public Schools increased security and conducted regular perimeter checks after two of its high schools received threats. Another school was restricted in movement for a day.

A teacher in Independence was teaching fewer than a dozen students one day as families kept their students home in response to multiple threats to schools across Jackson County. Later that week, another incident led police to a secondary school in the district to investigate.

Since July 1, the Missouri State Highway Patrol has received 102 reports of school shootings – nearly as many as the 115 school shootings reported in the entire last school year. The threats have disrupted classes, distressed students, families and teachers and could cost schools hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost funding.

Why are we seeing more threats against schools?

John McDonald, chief operating officer of the Missouri School Board Association’s Center for Education Safety, said threats in schools are cyclical. They occur throughout the year but begin in larger numbers at the beginning of the school year before tapering off.

Threats increase following mass shootings at other schools – the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, which made national news likely contributing to Kansas and Missouri’s September surge – and around anniversaries of previous tragedies, such as that April anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.

“(People who make threats) like to test boundaries, to see how far they can get, to see what will be done, to see the chaos they will cause,” McDonald said. “Schools have learned over the last 25 years that we don’t have the luxury of not believing a threat.”

McDonald said Missouri and most other states do not have a mandate requiring the reporting of threats in schools, making it difficult to get the numbers. He urged the students to use it Courage2Reportthe Missouri Highway Patrol’s anonymous hotline because it is connected to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Courage2Report said it received 1,579 tips to its hotline from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, including 52 duplicates. Of those tips, 115 involved a school shooting and 75 involved a gun threat.

Since the start of this school year, which Courage2Report considers July 1, reports have been received of 102 school shootings and 14 planned school attacks.

John Calvert, senior school security specialist for the Kansas Department of Education, said the state is also seeing an increase in social media threats compared to previous years.

He said mental health needs have increased since the start of the COVID pandemic and social media can make it easier for some to forget that their words and actions affect real people. Schools are not immune to other problems outside classroom walls, Calvert said.

“We’re just smaller communities within a community,” Calvert said. “If our community itself is becoming more and more violent, which is easier to see, then it is likely that our schools are becoming more and more violent as well.”

Calvert and local law enforcement encourage residents to report threats but not to reshare them on social media.

What do schools do when they receive a threat?

Schools first assess the nature of the threat – such as whether to warn of an attack or tell students not to come to class tomorrow.

Schools will then immediately call 911 and work with a school staff member or police officer to make safety decisions, such as: B. whether to close a building, secure the area, or locate a student named in a threat.

McDonald said schools face two types of threats, internal and external, and deal with each differently.

To deal with internal threats, schools use a program called Behavioral Threat Assessment. This includes bringing together a group of educators, counselors, law enforcement, parents and students to understand where the threat comes from and how to deal with it.

McDonald said external threats pose a greater challenge. Schools must have a secure program in place to lock their doors and ensure students notify someone if they see a suspicious person.

“Students know before an adult if there is a problem in their school,” McDonald said. “If you have a good climate and a good culture where you have built trust with your kids and they feel like they can tell you, they will tell you or call Courage2Report.”

Schools are also alerting principals and preparing notices to send to teachers and families.

McDonald said schools cannot share confidential safeguards or investigative procedures but must be transparent with parents, students and staff.

“Most of the time we are afraid to talk. Maybe we don’t want to worry people…we need to move beyond that,” McDonald said. “Our parents, our children, our educators, they all deserve to know what’s going on.”

Calvert said Kansas requires schools to conduct at least three crisis drills each year. Calvert said it is important for schools to have response plans and training for staff and students in the event of a school shooting.

“We really need to be clear, and this is especially hard to say after tragedies, that our schools are truly the safest place our children will be on that day,” Calvert said. “But that doesn’t mean we take these threats lightly.”

How do threats interrupt learning?

Whether schools choose to lockdown or close depends on their ability to deal with a threat, McDonald said. This also includes their relationship with law enforcement and how specific a threat they are.

Securing or locking down a building can disrupt student learning, even if the threat is not credible. Families also may not feel safe sending their children to school in the days following a threat.

Independence School District’s attendance rate fell from 90.74% on a Friday to 66.74% the following week after an online threat targeted several school districts in Jackson County.

Independence Superintendent Dale Herl said the district received another threat Friday, causing attendance to drop to about 82%.

The state considers attendance rates in the amount of funding it sends to school districts. Herl said those absences cost the district about $225,000.

“What we are really concerned about is the revenue that goes directly to paying the salaries and benefits of our teachers and certified staff,” Herl said.

The attendance rate at East Trails Middle School in Lee’s Summit fell to 75% on Sept. 10 before rising again to 94.53% the following day. Other school districts saw smaller declines in attendance.

Herl said the state can adjust its funding mechanism for emergencies like natural disasters and argued it should do the same for schools facing threats.

Dr. Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Collier said everyone is on high alert because of the statewide threats.

“We want students to feel safe and comfortable in school, and we want them to do well,” Collier said. “The fact that some students are afraid to come – that is really a painful experience and a challenge for us that we continue to work on.”

McDonald said he understands why parents might want to keep their students home after a threat. He said every parent must make a decision based on how safe they feel and how their school responds to threats.

“If the school has good structures and a plan in place, it’s probably a really good, safe place,” McDonald said. “These are questions every parent should be asking the school and feel comfortable and confident because you are sending your most valuable resource.”