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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont educators have been struggling with how to respond to threats made against schools, with the top priority of ensuring student safety, educating students about the dangers of threats and working with law enforcement to respond when threats do come.
Officials across the country say school threats are increasing. One estimate is that during the last school year there were about eight bomb threats per school day. And that estimate doesn't include other threats of violence or disruption.
The Vermont Agency of Education doesn't track the number of threats in the state, but Vermont schools have been subject to the same kind of bomb threats, robo-calls and other threats faced elsewhere.
Officials know most of the threats do not pose an actual threat to the safety of students or others in the schools, but in each case they have to put safety first.
"The one time that you don't take something seriously and you don't do the legwork to ensure the credibility of the threat is the one time that potentially bad things happen, and the costs associated with not doing something are obviously much higher," said Robert Evans, a retired Vermont state trooper who works for Margolis Healy, a Burlington-based company that specializes in campus security. Evans is the school safety liaison for the Vermont Agency of Education.
In a memo to school leaders last winter after a spate of robocall threats across the country, including Vermont, state Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe said it was an opportunity for schools to review emergency procedures. She also encouraged officials to note the details of all threats.
Vermont school officials have learned to work with local law enforcement to respond appropriately to the threats, and schools have done a good job educating students that making threats or pulling the fire alarm isn't acceptable, Evans said.
"We live in a world where it's not just funny anymore, it's just not a school house prank, because of the unfortunate events that have taken place across the country and the world," he said.
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