What was a mundane task of opening the Canvas page for BV students has recently become an announcement page from the district. These infographics adorning a variety of realistic graphics and significant cautions all share the same message: threats in schools are not a joking matter.
Social media threats in the Kansas City Metro area are at a record high with NPR reporting a shocking 102 threats received since July 1st, nearly equal to the 115 threats reported over the entirety of last year. However, these concerns are not isolated to just the KC area. Director of Safety and
Security at the Blue Valley District Dan Carney sees firsthand the effects of this rise.
“They do seem to be up. We’ve even had a bulletin from the FBI the other day that [confirmed] this,” Carney said. “A majority of them are threa
ts that are being reposted and recirculated into different parts of the country, so they have a longer shelf life. According to the
police department there was a school, not with this school district, that was called off because of a threat in Overland Park.”
The implications of such actions are not over-exaggerated and can go farther than just the school.
“It starts with the school disciplinary consequences which could result in suspension, we’ve [even] had these go to long term hearings where you’re suspended for extended term – in some cases expelled from school for a year,” Carney said. “Then on the legal side of it we might determine [the poster] didn’t really mean it, but the police department [can say they] still made a threat and may be arrested and spend time in juvenile detention.”
The main danger isn’t exactly in the arbiters of the threats, but in the education, or lack thereof, of what these acts mean for the entire school community. Even when the goal was in a joking manor.
“I don’t think parents are as aware of what their kids are doing online.There’s so much online activity, and a lot of that takes place at night away from school, often where there is no monitoring,” Carney said. “You have had threats at Blue Valley High that have been made in the past, so even if every threat doesn’t turn into a school shooting we have to take every threat as seriously as if that’s where it was headed.”
The aforementioned Canvas announcements garnered attention from the unexpected nature of the banners, and without context, sparked some anxiety and confusion within the student body. However, that spark was exactly the intention of the BV district to ignite the fire of discussions.
“You know students are smart, let’s get the message out so they understand, really understand, the consequences of their actions. We worked with communica
tions to put together some messages so that when kids open up their laptop [and] go to Canvas, they can see consequences clearly,” Carney said “We talked about ho
w people have been trained pretty solidly not to talk about bombs at an airport. It’s the same thing, don’t even joke about it.”
The burden of ensuring the safety of the school environment doesn’t just fall on the policies and officers that are in the building, but the entire community.
“We really are trying to get parents and students to see that [reposting these posts can be worse] because you breathe life into it,” Carney said. “When [and] if they ever do see anything like this, don’t repost it, report it.”
