Law Enforcement Asks Parents To Educate Children On Online Threats

After a nationwide surge in threats called into schools, with involvement from the FBI and numerous state and local agencies, schools and police are now pleading with parents to teach their children the consequences of making a threat.

In Oklahoma, police agencies and prosecutors have vowed to bring serious consequences to any offender, including criminal prosecution.

According to Oklahoma City Police, the agency has investigated 65 threats against schools in its jurisdiction since the school year began.

“It's an incredible strain on the law enforcement agency, the communities that those schools are in, and that those law enforcement agencies are in,” said Tony Spurlock, Chief for the Oklahoma City University Police Department and previously Sheriff in Douglas County, Colorado.

Law enforcement investigates every threat to determine its credibility, and who made it. The process drains resources for small and large agencies, which further motivates those departments to work with prosecutors to criminally charge anyone who makes a threat.

“It does take the parents monitoring what their kids are doing and seeing, and making sure you're having those conversations with them, and then really just having the conversations in schools and in our communities to say, 'hey, yeah, that's not acceptable,'” Spurlock said.

Changes in training for law enforcement in Oklahoma in recent years have also increased the strength and speed of responses to all types of threats to schools in the state.

Bobby Floyd, an investigator and trainer for the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, said those changes were spurred by Gov. Stitt. He said it has helped keep Oklahoma students and teachers safe through enhanced partnerships between the Department of Public Safety and municipal police departments.

Those partnerships have also facilitated faster identification of suspects, even those who believe technology can keep them shielded.

“The social media apps, they're giving us that information, as long as we do everything we need to do to get that,” he said. “They are giving it to us willingly because they want to see this stop, too.”

Floyd said it's up to parents and adults to demonstrate to children that threats cannot be tolerated and have a high potential to ruin their future. 

“We've really focused on mental health, especially with juvenile mental health,” he said. “That's been a big issue over the last few years for us. And so, when we learn how to approach kids in that aspect and be there to help, not just as a cop, but to be there and be approachable, it makes an opportunity for us to all grow together.”