Back-to-school means increase in campus threats; experts urge public to stay alert, report suspicious activity

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio — Back-to-school is in full swing in the Tri-State, but experts said the exciting time of year can also bring the potential for danger as well.

“We tend to see more of the bomb threats or active shooter threats when it comes to go back to school. As well as around the springtime, the very end of spring when we go to get out of school,” said Emily Torok, the executive director of the Ohio School Safety Center.

The Cincinnati area has seen several school threats within just the last 12 months. On Monday, Hamilton High School saw their first day of school end early, after threatening phone calls were made. Back in April, a middle school student at West Clermont Middle School was charged after officials said he created a bomb threat. Even last December, local FBI agents investigated threatening emails made to several local schools.

Even with a large number of incidents at campuses locally, statewide and even nationally, law enforcement experts tell us that the threat of danger is slim.

“The clear majority are not credible, but again, you must take it seriously until you know it’s not credible,” said Mo Canady, a former police officer and executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Canady said Student Resource Officers (SROs) play a pivotal role in deciding how to respond when a school receives a threat, whether in-person, online or by phone.

“It really is important that the SRO is a functional part of any school’s multi-disciplinary safety team,” he said.

Canady said SROs can also be a helpful resource for students or parents to make reports to when something may be off or concerning.

“They’re there to be an advocate for you, to help keep you safe, and they are the right person for you to be able to report something that you see or hear that’s concerning to you,” he said.

The Ohio School Safety Center has a 24/7 resource available for anyone to report threats or suspicious activity, called the “Safer Ohio School Tipline.”

Parents, students or even staff can make anonymous reports online or by calling or texting 844-723-3764.

“The more we can do to have this anonymous reporting solutions out there, to have ways to report suspicious activity, the better our chances are to prevent something from happening,” Torok said.

Outside of the Ohio School Safety Center’s resources, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also has multiple school threat assessment training videos.