The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-28)

SATURDAY, MAY 28 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A

Texas school shooting

BY PERRY STEIN

AND HANNAH NATANSON

Schools across the country are
facing a wave of threats in the days
following the rampage i n Uvalde,
Tex.
Experts say that while school
threats are a daily occurrence,
schools are now on edge as admin-
istrators assess threats made on
social media and in classrooms,
resulting in heightened security
and lockdowns.
In New York, Suffolk County
police said they arrested a 16-year-
old for posting on social media
Thursday that he planned to con-
duct a “massive shooting” at Bell-
port High School, which he at-
tends. In Maryland, a high school
in Prince George’s County went
into lockdown on Thursday after a
student allegedly brought parts of
a “ghost gun” into a classroom; the
student was later arrested. And at
least six threats have been made
this week against schools in Texas,
according to media reports.
While there’s no national data-
base tracking school shooting
threats, experts say it’s not sur-
prising that there would be more
of them reported in the wake of
the Texas massacre.
“In the aftermath of a school
shooting tragedy, school shoot-
ings are front of mind for every-
one and we may be more inclined
to report suspected threats of vio-
lence, thus increasing the number
of threats,” James Densley, profes-
sor of criminal justice at Metro-
politan State University and a co-
founder of the Violence Project,
wrote in an email. “At the same
time, high school students try to
seize on the moment by calling in
hoax threats to get school can-
celed.”
In other cases, the threats may
be made by people wanting to

copy the most recent tragedy.

David Riedman, co-founder of

the K-12 School Shooting Data-

base, said he has recorded more

than 2,500 instances of threats to

carry out school shootings

through media reports since 2018,

though warned that this is far

from an exhaustive database.

In the days following the Uval-

de shooting, schools have told

families about threats of gun and

other violence against their chil-

dren’s schools, announcing shut-

downs and arrests of suspects.

In Southern California, a high

school canceled classes Friday af-

ter a threat that appeared to target

the school circulated on social me-

dia. The threat reportedly origi-

nated in Texas and was later

deemed to be not credible.

“The District encourages every-

one in our community to be alert

and if they see or hear anything

that concerns them, to bring it to

the attention of a trusted adult

right away,” a statement from the

school district to families read.

And across Texas, threats or

incidents of violence were report-

ed this week in at least six school

districts, according to the Dallas

Observer.

These included three instances

of a student with a weapon at

school, the accidental discharge of

a parent’s gun near school and a

bomb threat. The district that got

the bomb threat, Mercedes Inde-

pendent School District, also drew

a “social media rumor threat,” ac-

cording to spokeswoman Daisy

Espinoza. In response, the district

“went ahead and canceled school

for the rest of the year,” she said.

“Just totally canceled.”

On Wednesday, Donna Inde-

pendent School District in Texas

canceled classes after they re-

ceived credible threats of an at-

tack on the high school. Two mi-

nors and two adults were arrested.

“In light of the recent events

and in an abundance of caution,

we will be canceling school

d istrict-wide and staff will work

from home,” school officials wrote

in a letter to families.

In the weeks following the 2021

Oxford High School shooting in

Michigan, school districts grap-

pled with threats made on social

media. The result was hundreds of

school shutdowns as administra-

tors worked to determine which

threats to take seriously and

which to consider hoaxes.

Maryland’s Howard County, for

example, wrote a message to fami-

lies about “a new TikTok challenge

encouraging students to make

school shooting threats to

schools” and asked parents to

urge their children not to partici-

pate.

“At this point, there are no cred-

ible threats,” the message said.

“However, even hoax threats cre-

ate fear and cause disruption to

the school community.”

Amy Klinger, co-founder and

director of programs for the Edu-

cator’s School Safety Network,

said her organization has been

tracking school threats and inci-

dents since 2013. One major rea-

son for spikes in threats now is

that some teenagers are trying to

mimic the tragic events in Texas

they see reported on so widely in

national media, Klinger said.

She predicts that the threats

will subside in the coming days

and weeks as schools let out for

the summer and news outlets turn

to reporting on other topics. In the

meantime, Klinger said, schools

must take every threat seriously,

launching investigations and

communicating instantly with

parents and students about what

steps officials are taking.

She also noted that schools typ-

ically receive more threats in the

final stretch of the school year, as

bored teenagers looking to get out

of exams send hoax threats. But

Klinger cautioned against cancel-

ing classes, saying that keeping

children engaged with school is

one way to help prevent violence.

“Going virtual is one of the con-

tributing factors to ... the social

issues and the violence we’re see-

ing right now, and not just in

schools,” she said. “People are dis-

connected, they’re spending too

much time in front of screens,

they don’t have good relation-

ships.”

Riedman said his group is try-

ing to learn why students engi-

neer empty threats when the con-

sequences are so severe, and how

leaders should assess the myriad

threats that schools receive.

Schools face threats on social

media, in classrooms, in scrib-

blings on walls, said. There is no

uniform training for how person-

nel should assess threats and, ac-

cording to Riedman, when the

threats unfold in school buildings,

it often falls to one person’s discre-

tion on whether to report them.

Schools around the nation face copycat threats, reports of guns on campus

Incidents of violence,

threats were reported

in at least 6 Tex. districts

BY ISAAC ARNSDORF

houston — Outside a National
Rifle Association convention be-
set by high-profile cancellations
after a massacre at a Texas el-
ementary school, protesters
massed on Friday to demand
stricter gun control, and answers
from authorities.
The Republican lawmakers
who elected to keep their speak-
ing plans at the annual gathering
sounded a different note: defi-
ance.
Former president Donald
Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R),
among other speakers, broadly
rejected proposals for new re-
strictions and called instead for
more school security or mental
health screenings, while issuing
dark warnings of alleged Demo-
cratic plots to take weapons.
“We all know they want total
gun confiscation, know that this
would be a first step,” Trump told
the crowd in an auditorium about
300 miles from the site of the
mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex.
“Once they get the first step,
they’ll take the second step, the
third, the fourth, and then you’ll
have a whole different look at the
Second Amendment.”
The fiery speeches contrasted
with a moment of silence held at
the convention for the 19 children
and two teachers killed on Tues-
day in a mass killing that has
again raised calls from Demo-
crats and advocates for new gun-
control measures. Even more
forcefully than in the wake of the
elementary school killings at San-
dy Hook nearly a decade ago,
though, the NRA sent a clear
message that the lobby and its
backers do not view new restric-
tions as negotiable.
The GOP speakers shifted
blame for the latest tragedy from
the availability of high-powered
weapons to an array of other
culprits, such as declining church
attendance, physical and social
media bullying, weak families,
violent video games, opioid
abuse, lack of mental health ser-
vices, multiple points of entry at
schools and unlocked doors.
The speakers also pivoted from
condemning the evil of the Uval-
de school shooter to vilifying

“elites,” the media, Democrats,

and “communist Marxists,” elicit-

ing cheers from the under-

capacity but vocal crowd.

“The elites who dominate our

culture tell us that firearms lie at

the root of the problem,” Cruz

said. “It’s far easier to slander

one’s political adversaries and to

demand that responsible citizens

forfeit their constitutional rights

than it is to examine the cultural

sickness giving birth to unspeak-

able acts of evil.”

Abbott, appearing in a record-

ed message because he was at the

same time holding a news confer-

ence in Uvalde that included criti-

cizing the law enforcement fail-

ures, rejected out-of-hand new

gun restrictions.

“Just as laws didn’t stop the

killer, we will not let his evil acts

stop us from uniting the commu-

nity that he tried to destroy,”

Abbott said in the video.

In the decade since Sandy

Hook, the NRA has increasingly

allied itself with the GOP, broad-

ening its focus from gun rights to

include other conservative cul-

ture war issues and grievances,

and betting big on Trump in the

2016 campaign. The NRA used

Friday’s event to project strength

after years of turmoil as the or-

ganization fights a lawsuit by the

New York attorney general alleg-

ing executives misspent funds.

The NRA pressed ahead with

the program despite calls to

move, postpone or cancel it out of

respect to the Uvalde victims. A

growing crowd of protesters in

the park across the street shouted

“Shame” at attendees as they en-

tered the convention center. In an

interview before the speeches,

NRA board member David A.

Keene said the organization did

not consider modifying the pro-

gram because it would inconve-

nience the thousands of people

who made plans to attend.

Other board members were

more pointed in their response to

critics. “If we backed away every

time there was controversy, we

wouldn’t be worthy of anybody’s

support,” said Robert L. Barr Jr., a

former congressman from Geor-

gia.

Trump acknowledged the

blowback with a swipe at the

speakers who backed out, a list

that included Texas Lt. Gov. Dan

Patrick (R). “Unlike some, I didn’t

disappoint you by not showing

up,” he said.

Trump and Cruz pushed for

hardening school buildings, with

Trump calling for the elimination

of gun-free school zones and Cruz

saying schools should have a sin-

gle door guarded by armed police

or trained military veterans — a

plan that would appear likely to

run afoul of fire safety laws re-

quiring more than one exit in

buildings. Cruz also called for

bulletproof doors and locking

classroom doors.

“As the age-old saying goes, the

only way to stop a bad guy with a

gun is a good guy with a gun,”

Trump said, quoting NRA chief

executive Wayne LaPierre’s re-

mark almost a decade ago in the

aftermath of the mass school

shooting in Newtown, Conn.

On Friday, LaPierre empha-

sized the NRA’s efforts to train

schools and local authorities and

advocated for more security fund-

ing — despite the growing ques-

tions about whether law enforce-

ment officers in Uvalde acted

quickly enough to confront or

stop the mass killing there.

“Restricting the fundamental

human right of law-abiding

Americans to defend themselves

is not the answer,” LaPierre said.

“We, the NRA, will never, ever

stop fighting for the right of the

innocent and the law-abiding to

defend themselves against the

evil criminal element that

plagues our society because we

know there can be no freedom, no

security, no safety without the

right of the law-abiding to bear

arms for self-defense.”

Trump also criticized federal

aid to Ukraine, saying that if the

United States could afford that

and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

then the government should

build more hardened schools.

The Ukraine line drew cheers

from a crowd that roused him out

of reading the remarks in a flat

affect. Later in his speech, Trump

strayed from gun rights to re-

hearse his standard rally materi-

al, with frequent shout-outs from

the audience, including the

chanting of a phrase that is code

for a profane expression against

President Biden and, when

Trump discussed the 2020 elec-

tion, “We won!”

Trump went so far as to belittle

the social justice demonstrations

that followed the 2020 murder of

George Floyd by a Minneapolis

police officer. “The very same

Democrat politicians who stoked

riots over a single police-involved

killing two years ago are numb to

the mounting death toll of their

own radical policies,” Trump said.

Cruz called Chicago a “murder

hellhole,” to applause from the

audience.

Trump said that as president,

he showed too much leniency to

Democratic politicians running

major cities and that he would act

differently if he were elected

again.

“If I ever do it again, namely

run for president and win, I

would no longer feel obligated to

do it that way,” Trump said. “I

would crack down on violent

crime like never before.”

Trump called up a Fort Worth

man named Jack Wilson who

killed a shooter at his church in

2020. “You’re still my president,”
      Wilson told Trump, as people in
      the audience stood and cheered.

Trump, others take defiant stances at NRA convention

Cruz joins former

president in deflecting

push for gun control

SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS

“We all know they want total gun confiscation, know that this would be a first step,” former president Donald Trump said of Democrats.

Trump’s speech at the National Rifle Association’s convention came three days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex.

SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Experts say schools around the country are on edge after the shooting Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex.

“The elites who

dominate our culture

tell us that firearms lie

at the root of the

problem.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), at the

National Rifle Association gathering