Last week’s call that someone was holding hostages in a Chaparral High School bathroom that put the school in lockdown turned out to be a hoax, but it wasn’t an anomaly, experts say.
School districts across the Valley and the nation are getting similar threats reported in record numbers, according Phoenix Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Derek Elmore who was one of six panelists at a town hall at Chaparral High Sept. 30 to discuss the phenomenon.
“The threats are on the increase,” Elmore said. “Phoenix, for instance, we started our school threat program back in 2017 and since then we’ve been tracking threats. The most threats we’ve had before this past month is 43. This past month, only up to the 27th, we’ve had 79.”
