The Office of Safe Environments for the Diocese of Wilmington is reminding school officials, parents, students, family and friends that school safety is at the top of the list of priorities for all schools.
In a school safety memo issued Sept. 10, Brian Moore, director of Office of Safe Environments for the diocese, said law enforcement is prepared to act if threats are made.
“The FBI and local Joint Counter Terrorism Task Force are aware of multiple social media based threats of school violence being received by schools nationwide,” Moore said in a statement sent to schools in Delaware ad Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“There is no information to support the credibility of any of these threats. Schools who receive or are made aware of any of these threats locally should contact the Office of Safe Environments at 302-295-0668 or email a copy of the post to bmoore@cdow.org.
He said events such as the recent school shooting in Atlanta and the remembrance of the 9/11 anniversary often lead to copycat threats from people seeking attention or to disrupt the normal operations of schools.
“However, no threat should be taken lightly. If a student shows signs of a deep interest in the recent school shootings, or a fixation on the history of shooters etc, you should document that behavior and determine if there is a concern about the behavior as well as the possibility of the planning of a shooting event. In over 57% of the cases of school shootings, someone was aware of the planned attack before it took place.“
