Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong has found the recent trend of student threats occurring in schools in local public and private schools problematic. Furlong said law enforcement takes student threats more seriously than simple outbursts.
“A threat is a threat, and I cannot fathom the thought of not acting on that threat right now, ” Furlong told the Appeal Friday.
A string of single incidents leading to student arrests has led to attention and cause for intervention with a focus on the middle school age demographic in recent weeks:
While Furlong said there have been social media challenges and similar trends nationally, these verbal terroristic threats of violence are not the same as what are seen on SnapChat or Facebook.
“What we speak about threats to schools is usually the individual threat, and they call it the lone wolf,” he said. “That is the greatest threat to an environment. I don’t know that any of these kids that we have taken into custody are bad kids. They are kids saying bad things.”
Every incident has been investigated, and every student and their family have been cooperative to date, he said.
“So why are these students doing this?” he said. “We’re not talking sensitive subjects. You’re not talking about sex. You’re talking about behaviors coming out of your mouth that can have a very lifelong, devastating impact on you. It’s not a joke. It’s not fun.”
The CCSO partners with the Carson City School District and its programs for many services and in investigations involving students and staff and works to educate students in situations. Carson City School District Superintendent Andrew Feuling told the Appeal the escalation in the student threats has become intense and frustrating on a national scale.
“I don’t think (the students) realized it was going to be taken so seriously,” Feuling said. “We found no intent with any of them. They’re not kids that are getting suspended, getting in trouble. They’re making a really poor decision and doing it for pure attention, their parents’ attention and to get some kind of reaction.”
Feuling said students are not understanding the weight of their actions in a public space.
“You don’t say ‘bomb’ on a plane or you don’t say ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, right?” he said. “There are some problems with that. You don’t ever say, really, no matter where you’re at that ‘I’m going to shoot up a school,’ like, that is not OK. And how you get kids to understand that, as they’re still developing in middle school, is a difficult age with brain development and hormones, but to understand that, culturally it needs to not be OK.”
Christie Perkins, CCSD director of grants and special projects, said the district is providing many supports to students. For example, teachers, counselors and support professionals offer strategies in the classroom to show that words matter in showing respect in their ideas, thoughts and expressions, she said.
“We are really putting a lot of effort in our (social-emotional learning) curriculum, and in all of our schools are our (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) structures, and tier one is teaching pro-social appropriate behavior,” she said. “So, how do you act in the classroom? How do you work if you're working with someone you don't get along with?”
Students should be able to connect with friends, colleagues and adults in a civil, comfortable way and through proper channels, Perkins said. One method for them to report incidents anonymously is the SafeVoice hotline at 1-833-216-7233 (SAFE). The hotline allows them to notify the police about a threat or to report in with a tip about their own safety with anonymity, Perkins said.
“Yes, we should use that tool, but we should use it for serious items, not something you could address by going and talking to your teacher, not tattling,” Perkins said. “We need to really understand the difference between conflicts and bullying, and we need to understand between tattling and appropriate, respectful behavior that's not dangerous with safety as our lens for everything.”
Recent school district policies and actions, such as the cell phone ban, have helped to improve disruptive behaviors or the urge to create threats. Fewer students now are engaging in filming bullying incidents and later posting them to social media sites, Feuling, Perkins and Furlong agree.
“It has helped with the restroom situation — we don't have kids in areas they shouldn't be,” Perkins said. “As far as the online bullying, not all of it occurs at school at times, but that needs to be reported. Our administrators are trained on how to react with that quickly to do a full investigation, to identify the victim and make sure we're putting a plan in place to support that victim and to get that to stop. Not every situation is bullying by any means, but those need to be addressed, and we have services to address those once we become aware of them.”
But Furlong said he also has “raised the alarm” on the issue of the threats as well through the local media to ask for community awareness and support because there is a need for greater involvement from families to help their kids. Furlong has long advocated to help students build trust in law enforcement’s responsibility to the community and referred to the district’s counseling resources for youth who are struggling with mental or behavioral issues.
He also encourages parents to take simple steps to stay aware of their child’s behaviors and digital activities, with Ron Wood Family Resource Center in Carson City or Carson City Juvenile Services offering regular classes on a monthly basis.
“This (cell phone) is a time bomb sitting in your house, and it’s very private. Everybody's phone is very, very private,” Furlong said. “The kids know it. They know it. So, when you sit down and you talk with your kids, that trust has to go both ways, child to adult and adult to child.”
Feuling said it’s important to build and maintain parent support in the home with behavior to reinforce the schools’ services.
“Parents need to be aware of what their child is doing, and they need to know, we're trying to be supportive to turn those types of behaviors around, but we need parents’ support as well when those cases do come up, again, have a conversation with your kid,” Feuling said. “You cannot treat people like that.”
Perkins said Carson Middle School was holding an assembly on Friday with students to address the threat issue. Eagle Valley Middle School also has one planned, she said, so the schools are taking preventative measures to help these recent incidents stop. It also will encourage students with its “Stop, Walk, Talk” practice to help them learn how to prevent a harmful behavior, walk away from or disengage from it and then to inform a trusted adult who can put new supports in place for the student or students.
Furlong said his office alone can’t tackle the issue by itself and asked the community to be involved.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy, I don’t care what grade, and I know that is upsetting, but I can’t risk we being wrong,” he said.
He also said children need to trust their parents as they check on in their safety and encouraged better communication.
“Have the old school dinner table chat one night,” he said. ‘No TV, let’s chat. All of us know we can't say certain things.’ These kids, legitimately, do they know that? Does a 13-year-old know that? Does a 14-year-old know that? Does a 10-year-old know that?
“Talk to your kids and trust me. More importantly, talk to your kids about trusting you.”
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment