AUSTIN, Texas — From students getting arrested in Central Texas to a 16-year-old getting arrested near Houston, authorities are seeing an alarming rise in school threats.
“Kids think it’s funny, they think it’s a joke and it’s not something that we’re gonna tolerate,” Dep. Anthony Hipolito of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office said.
Parents are more concerned than ever.
“It’s a pit in your stomach,” Lake Travis ISD parent Shauntelle Thompson said.
Parents like Thompson are scared for their kids, as Central Texas school districts have faced a surge in school threats over the last month.
“My kids were the same age or my daughter was when Sandy Hook happened,” Thompson said. “So the fact that this is the norm is very upsetting.”
Heba Aslanyan is the mother of three kids at Austin Independent School District.
“We live in a world, you have to prepare your children at a really young age for different scenarios and different things that are ugly and scary in the world,” Aslanyan said. “And this is just one of them.”
Dr. Christopher Hansen is a clinical supervisor for Thriveworks, a mental health provider. He says parents need to prepare their kids by having the hard conversations.
“You have to ride a fine line between talking about it and supporting them and not portraying an overly like pessimistic or dangerous world for you,” Hansen said. “But we also need to put things in perspective for them so that they’re street smart, that they’re wise to what’s going on with the, you know in the world. But they’re not scared to experience the world.”
Hansen acknowledges that many parents are worried that talking about the threats will make the fear worse.
“It’ll actually make it better because you’re giving them a chance to express you know what they’re thinking, etc., and then you’re listening to them and you know assuring, reassuring them that things are going to be okay,” Hansen said.
It is giving love and reassurance at home, so they can spread it elsewhere.
“The best way to prep your kids is to teach them to be kind, compassionate and loving,” Aslanyan said. “That way, they don’t grow up to be a person that hates the world and wants to take a vengeance towards somebody else.”
School districts including Hays CISD are rolling out a campaign called “Threat Regret,” which encourages people to report threats right away to their schools.