Scottsdale Unified School District hosts town hall amid school threats spree

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The Scottsdale Unified School District hosted a town hall to discuss a recent trend of threats involving schools across the Phoenix area on Sept. 30.

In recent weeks, a number of schools in Arizona have dealt with incidents involving school safety, mostly in the form of threats.

• On Sept. 12, Buckeye Police announced the arrest of a 13-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy in connection with separate threats involving Bales Elementary School and Buckeye Union High School.
• On Sept. 17, a student was stabbed at Arizona State University's west campus.
• On Sept. 19, Mesa Police said 17 threats of violence were made within Mesa Public Schools. Six juveniles were reported to police, and officials said charges were filed against them.
• On Sept. 20, a juvenile in the Prescott Valley area was arrested for their alleged role in a threat incident that involved Liberty Traditional School.
• On Sept. 22, a girl in Buckeye was arrested in connection with a school threat that involved a school in Wisconsin.

One of Scottsdale Unified's schools were also involved in a threat incident: On the morning of Sept. 25, Scottsdale Police received a call alleging that students were being held hostage at Chaparral High School. While there was no credible threat, the school was placed into lockdown, and officers searched the campus.

Meanwhile, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said it received at least 11 cases involving students making threats against local schools.

'It's been a really tough week'

Besides school officials, Scottsdale's police chief also addressed parents' concerns at the Sept. 30 meeting.

The message to parents is to remind their children to report threats and not to repost them.

"It's been a really tough week to be honest. She hasn't gone to school for a couple of days," Summer Gehrke, a parent at Chaparral High School, said.

"I feel like we don't talk about this every day and it's scary," another parent within the district said.

Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther said the recent hostage threat likely came from out of the country.

"The Chaparral call in particular, we don't believe it originated in this country and that the same call hit two other schools in two other states. That's what we know today," he said.

Although no one was arrested, students have been arrested at other Valley schools.

"There's a variety of things that kids can be charged with and if they are resharing the post, they can be charged with that as well, so that's why it's important to not try to get that information out to friends but to report it so they don't get in trouble in the end," said Phoenix PD Executive Assistant Chief Derek Elmore.

The panel of officers and school officials says if your child sees something, they need to say something.

Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel says there are simple and straight forward procedures in place.

"Doors need to be locked. We have secure front entrances that have all been retrofitted and updated, thanks to the generosity of the voters here in Scottsdale," Dr. Menzel said. "We need to then follow the proper protocols so that we know who is on our campus at all times."

For those who could not attend the meeting, the district says they are making all the information from Monday's meeting available on the district's website.