SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — We're not even halfway through the school year, and Phoenix schools have already been threatened 79 times.
School threats continue to disrupt classes across the Phoenix-Metro, creating concern for students and parents. As Valley police agencies work to address the threat, high-ranking policemen say that this is unlike anything they've seen before.
So far this school year, Phoenix police were called to 79 school threats which is the highest they've seen, Phoenix's Assistant Chief Derek Elmore said. The previous record was 43.
“This has turned into an every day occurrence," said Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther.
Chief Walther alongside Paradise Valley Police Chief Freeman Carney and Elmore all discussed what each of their departments have gone through since the start of the school year at a town hall held in Scottsdale Monday evening.
It was held at Chaparral High School where within the last week, a school threat forced the school to be placed on lockdown. Chief Walther said as many as 40 officers responded when a 911 call was made that claimed people were being held hostage in the bathroom. However, Scottsdale police said no threat was found.
Sequoya Elementary School also received a threat the day before, Chief Walther said.
"It was an actual person calling in saying, 'I'm in front of the school now, I'm going in and I'm going to, conduct a mass killing or a mass shooting," Walther said.
Later police discovered that in both incidents the calls were made outside the country.
It's a new issue Walther said police and other law enforcement agencies have to deal with.
Many threats have also been made through social media. However, Walther said most don't even originate in Arizona but come from somewhere else in the country that are then shared locally.
Chief Carney said its common for these types of calls to be pranks or even teens "daring" each other to make the threat. While the threat may not be serious, Elmore said law enforcement will always take it that way.
"It’s about making sure everything is safe,” Elmore said.
Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel said the district has taken extra precautions to keep students and staff safe. The district has implemented thousands of cameras that can be viewed in real time. Entry points into classrooms and buildings have been retrofitted to make sure they lock and prevent people from going inside. There was also a discussion over weapon detection systems that have been used in other Valley School districts which SUSD is considering.
"The budget is not infinite, and so it is a matter of, how do we address all of these things, using the resources we have," Dr. Menzel said.
More school resource officers was also talked about during the town hall. Walther said there are 10 that are responsible for covering Scottsdale schools. While more would be ideal, Walther said the department is already struggling to find officers to fill open positions.
Still, police departments are responding in full force to each situation. It lead to several teens getting charged, one as young as 11-years-old according to the Mesa Police Department which recently said 24 schools with Mesa Public School have received similar threats.
"If we had 100 days in a row of this call in our city, we would respond to the 101 day in the same way that we responded to day number one," Walther said.
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