PHOENIX — New statistics are showing the dozens of school threats reported in September across the state account for more than 40 percent of all school threats reported this year in Arizona.
According to information provided by the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) to the Arizona Department of Education, ACTIC received more than 130 school threats from September 4, 2024 to September 24, 2024. There were 177 school threats reported to ACTIC from January to September 3.
"We've seen a much higher intake of these kind of calls, General, specific, both of them to different school facilities. And again, we're seeing this across the nation," Sgt. Brian Bower with the Phoenix Police Department said.
Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa are among several Valley cities that have dealt with threats to schools.
The data also shows 88 of the 130 school threats in the 20 days in September were reports of a shooting or weapons at school. Eight of the threats were bomb threats according to ACTIC, and eight were deemed "general" threats. The remaining were determined to be duplicates or generic threats not tied to an Arizona school.
A spokesperson for Mesa Police Department told 12News in an email the majority of the threats they have investigated have been from students with a few cases of online threats originating from outside the country.
Still, the threats take resources to investigate and protect students.
"The safety of the students is going to be held to the highest priority. So there's going to be a zero tolerance, and there's consequences for your actions on reposting these threats or authoring these original posts," Bower said.
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