How are Traverse City schools and law enforcement agencies handling the flood of copycat threats that hit Michigan school districts in the wake of last month’s the shooting at Oxford High School? That shooting, which occurred November 30 in Oakland County, left four students dead and seven injured. Since then, schools have fielded hundreds of threats of school violence. The trend has raised questions about how schools and law enforcement should punish threats even when they are deemed “non-credible.”

According to the FBI, copycat threats are “very common” in the wake of school violence. The agency urges that “students, teachers, school administrators and law enforcement officials should be more vigilant in noting disturbing student behavior in the days and weeks or even several months following a heavily publicized incident elsewhere in the country.”

Threats in Michigan spiked rapidly following the shooting at Oxford High. “Over 100 Michigan Schools Close Friday After Copycat Shooting Threats Pour In” read a Forbes headline from Friday, December 3. On Monday, December 5, Grand Traverse County Prosecuting Attorney Noelle Moeggenberg announced that the issue had come to northern Michigan, noting that at least five threats had been made against students and staff at Grand Traverse County schools.

There has been at least one additional school threat since Moeggenberg’s announcement. At 7:15pm last Thursday, December 9, Traverse City West Senior High (WSH) Principal Joe Esper sent an email to parents to inform them that “near the end of the school day today, student(s) at WSH conspired towards a ‘day off of school’ by writing a false and generalized threat against WSH in a bathroom.’” Esper said that the “participating individual(s) were quickly identified by school administration” and that the threats were “quickly deemed non-credible.”

“As we have stated repeatedly over the past nine days, all threats of school violence are taken extremely seriously,” Esper wrote. “The district thoroughly investigates all incidents, and discipline, if warranted, follows district policies and procedures. For example, threats of violence whether made verbally or in writing would typically result in discipline including immediate suspension and the possibility of expulsion. In addition, these matters are reported to law enforcement, and criminal charges may be brought forward.”

Ginger Smith, executive director of marketing and communications for Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), says the good news is that TCAPS has typically been able to identify threats “quite quickly” – and to deem them “non-credible” through dual investigations by school administration and law enforcement. “Most individuals who make threats are quickly identified due to the voice of others who speak up when they hear of something,” she explains.

Esper, in his email to parents, also thanked WSH students for their role in reporting threats – whether to adults at the school or via OK2SAY, a statewide online system that allows anyone to submit confidential tips “on criminal activities or potential harm directed at students, school employees, or schools.” Esper called the vigilance of students reporting suspicious behavior “the best tool to keep our schools safe.”

Still, even with threats noted and perpetrators identified, there’s more to the conversation – including the question of whether students who make threats of violence, even in jest, should be removed from school or subject to criminal charges. It’s a question that has come to the forefront in the weeks following the Oxford shooting, given that the alleged shooter in that case – 15-year-old sophomore Ethan Crumbley – had been flagged for suspicious behavior in the days and hours leading up to the shooting.

Last week, the parents of two students at Oxford High – one of whom suffered a gunshot wound but survived – filed a lawsuit against the district for its handling of the situation. Among other charges, the lawsuit alleges that Crumbley had “posted countdowns and threats of bodily harm” on social media. Parents complained to the school district about those posts leading up to the shooting, but the superintendent and principal ultimately ruled the threats were not credible.

Smith says TCAPS doesn’t have the option of implementing a true zero tolerance policy for violence threats – one that would result in automatic expulsion for students who make threats – “because an expulsion requires a hearing and involves a timeline.” As a result, TCAPS policies “typically won't say [students who make threats] are automatically expelled, but rather [that they] face consequences up to expulsion,” she explains.

But Smith also notes that many of the Michigan students behind recent copycat threats are facing both expulsion and criminal charges – a sign that these types of behaviors are not being taken lightly. According to the Detroit Free Press, kids as young as nine years old have been arrested in recent weeks “after they allegedly spoke about violence they might commit involving schools and students.” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard has said that he believes most of the state’s “flood of false threats” have come from students trying to get out of class.

Moeggenberg tells The Ticker that part of the problem is students not realizing the seriousness of their actions – or the consequences that can result from a threat of school violence. She notes that the prosecutor’s office is taking local copycat threats “very seriously” and that “charges will be pressed when there is sufficient evidence. Obviously, each case will be dealt with individually based on the juvenile, their record if they have one, and any other relevant circumstances.”

As for preventing threats in the future, that might come down to educating students – something Moeggenberg says the prosecutor’s office is trying to do in collaboration with TCAPS and other local schools.

“I have been in communication with [TCAPS] Superintendent John VanWagoner and others, we have done a press release, and through local law enforcement we have put out a PSA about the consequences [of school violence threats],” Moeggenberg says. “I know that parents have received information from TCAPS through email about the consequences and have been asked to discuss the consequences with their children.”