School threats happening daily across metro Detroit, putting students, parents on edge

Sometimes, a lot of smaller, seemingly harmless things add up.

Take false school gun threats, which authorities say are on the rise, and have been gradually requiring more administrative and law enforcement resources. They often are described as hoaxes and pranks, but are increasingly putting students, parents and teachers on edge.

The threats themselves are traumatic, but, more than that, the feelings and anxiety from them are exacerbated by online news and social media — which are more emotionally raw, bring communities that might be far apart closer together and connect us to school shootings in which people died.

Consider what happened in just one day this week:

As prosecutors sought a life sentence for Ethan Crumbley, now 16, in connection with the murders of four Oxford High students, another teen — in Ferndale, a different Oakland County community — was arrested Tuesday in connection with a school threat.

"Today’s threat is not connected to the previous situation from the past Sunday night," Ferndale Public Schools posted on Facebook, trying to explain a second incident in just three days. "It is also important to note that in both cases, no weapons were found on school grounds and the individuals who made these threats did not have the means to actually carry them out."

Farther away geographically — but a Google alert, tweet and Instagram post away digitally — there were even more gun violence reports.

Nearby Hazel Park High School also went into lockdown on Tuesday, a result of a social media threat. Hazel Park High later released students to continue their day in class — or go home, but the incident added to the anxiety.

Meanwhile, in the parking lot of an elementary school in Ball, Louisiana, two people were shot while attempting a drug deal, KLAB-TV reported Tuesday. But even if you weren't in Louisiana, news of the shooting was easily accessible online to metro Detroiters.

In Seattle, where a 17-year-old student was fatally shot last week at a high school, prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 14- and 15-year-old in connection with the slaying. It was yet another online reminder of yet another child who had died too young.

And on the other side of the nation, in Maine, as many as 10 communities in that state faced school shooter threats, prompting the Justice Department to get involved. No one was injured, authorities said, but the news there sparked widespread terror.

"Maine is the latest state to fall victim to a wave of 'swatting' incidents, with multiple communities today feeling the fear that has been shared by so many across the country," U.S. Attorney Darce McElwee said Tuesday, listing off tragic shootings. "We know that a similar tragedy could happen anywhere — even here in Maine."

Swatting is shorthand for making a prank call to draw a swarm of armed police officers to a school.

McElwee limited her remarks to America, but she also could have included Canada. A school threat in Toronto sent a York Memorial Collegiate Institute, a high school, into lockdown following reports of a person with a gun at the school, according to CTV news.

Feeling gratitude and frustration

Parents of students in the Ferndale district expressed both gratitude and frustration in the wake of the announcements. They thanked the district for keeping their kids safe, but also complained about what they considered poor communication. Tuesday’s threat, which parents said suggested gun violence, was found on a note in a student bathroom at Ferndale High, sending the district’s high school and middle school into lockdown.

Police later arrested an unnamed 16-year-old boy.

Tuesday’s arrest in Ferndale followed one from the day before. That one, authorities said, was of another 16-year-old student, an unnamed girl, who police said had made a gun threat Sunday through social media.

In that case, police said, the school received several calls about the posting, which promised on Monday that three loaded weapons would be brought to the high school. It also included a hit list of students that the shooter planned to target.

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No weapons were found, and no one was shot.

But it was obvious from social media comments that the threats had taken their toll. One poster went so far as to suggest the district should "cancel school tomorrow because this is out of hand and no one feel safe in that building with all of this going on."

Too many incidents to report

Before the deadly Oxford shooting in which Crumbley, then 15, brought a handgun to school and opened fire, school threats had become commonplace. Now, officials say, they are happening daily.

"We have been inundated with threats from all across this county," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a recorded message posted on Twitter. "We need every student to understand, if you make a threat — whether or not you intend to carry it out — it is a crime."

There are now so many threats some news outlets have selectively stopped reporting on them. Police and schools also are wrestling with how much information to share about them, trying to balance a desire to keep students safe, protect people's privacy and refrain from causing a public panic.

With each incident this week the Ferndale district made a statement, but it also suggested additional questions were unwelcome, adding in its remarks that it would "not comment further," blaming "privacy laws" and a "police investigation."

And yet, parents of Ferndale students complained that the official notices on various electronic platforms, news reports, text messages, calls and rumors and speculation, was, at times, confusing and frustrating. Some also complained about public transparency.

What will prevent the threats?

As Oxford residents know all too well, the anguish from gun violence lasts more than a day.

In addition to frayed emotions, the school district among northern Detroit suburbs is facing multimillion-dollar civil lawsuits as survivors of slain students accuse officials of not doing enough to prevent the tragic deaths because, the lawsuits allege, red flags were ignored.

In recent months, police, prosecutors and school officials also have been trying to discourage threats by appealing to students’ character and by explaining the legal consequences if they are caught and convicted and charging Ethan Crumbley's parents with manslaughter.

Bobbie Goodrum, Ferndale’s superintendent, explained in one of her recent social media posts about the incidents, that making a threat is "not only unacceptable, but it also a felony" punishable if convicted by "up to 20 years in prison."

"One of the things social media does is move us beyond our local communities," said professor Kathleen Battles, who heads the communications department at Oakland University. "It puts us in easy touch with communities that are far away from us, and puts us in touch with them in a way that can seem very close to our own experiences."

For many, she said, these experiences spur copycats and "create a heightened sense of anxiety and fear."

She acknowledged feeling this herself, when on Monday, gunmen were spotted on Oakland University's campus, and police asked everyone to remain inside. She said she woke up to 17 messages on her phone that day, many asking whether she was OK.

A Ferndale schools dad said on social media that he hoped "the kids responsible for all this are punished to the full extent and not given any form of a slap on the wrist — no matter what their situation is."

But school gun threats also have become so prevalent that a criminal conviction does not seem to be enough of a deterrent especially when the possibility of an even harsher sentence — life in prison without the possibility of parole — has failed to stop school shooters.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: School gun threats in Ferndale spread wildly by social media, spark fears