Copycat Threats and Jittery Nerves Force School Shutdowns Across the U.S.

From New Jersey to Kansas to Texas, the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting has turned the routine of going to class into a nerve-racking proposition, as schools have ordered new lockdown drills, beefed up security and in some cases closed down entirely.

Since the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, teachers and administrators have been working to avoid a repeat in their own schools, while in many cases having to react to copycat threats or jittery nerves misinterpreting innocent sounds as approaching gunfire.

There were metal detectors and bag checks at B.M.C. Durfee High School, in Fall River, Mass., on Friday morning, after an anonymous Snapchat post warned the school could turn into “Florida part 2.”

In Nutley, N.J., the superintendent, Julie Glazer, shut down schools for all 4,100 students in the district after a parent reported seeing a video that included images of a student firing a gun and a school building. (The police said that there was no “imminent threat” and that the student was cooperating with them.)

“As both the superintendent of the Nutley Public Schools and as a parent, and because of the nature of the world in which we live, there was no other decision to be made,” the superintendent said in a statement.
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Law enforcement officers have been busy rushing to schools. A Broward County deputy accidentally shot himself in the leg on Thursday while answering a mistaken report of a shooting in a school not far from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

A community college south of Seattle that serves 17,000 students locked down its 80-acre campus on Friday morning as the police investigated reports of shots fired. No evidence of a shooting was found.

Some of the incidents have led to arrests on charges that include making threats or false reports.

Source :- nytimes