Over 600 U.S. threats since Florida shooting

Schools across the country have had more than 600 threats since the Valentine’s Day shooting in Florida.

Local schools have had their own threats as well.

Columbia Public Schools told us they look into everything that looks suspicious. “We do take all of these very seriously, each one of them is investigated and there are consequences,” said spokesperson, Michelle Baumstark.

The Southern Boone School District just released a reminder of an anonymous hotline students can use today. It allows the district to work with a third party, which allows callers to remain anonymous.

“Depending upon how they report it, if it’s a text message, we can actually have a conversation through the company to them, without even exposing their identity,” said Superintendent Christopher Felmee.

CPS said it teaches their students to report threats they have heard about directly to administrators, but if students are wary of talking with faculty, they also have a state hotline.

Baumstark told us that if they receive a threat everyday, they will look into it no matter what. “It’s more important that we are vigilant at keeping our schools safe, it is disruptive, don’t get me wrong. But we also want our students to feel safe and if that means we’re investigating something on a regular basis, that’s what we’ll do,” she said.

CPS told me that they hope to reduce the number of threats by teaching social media usage in the classroom. Students will learn about the consequences of their posts.