Authorities are investigating a Collingswood student who allegedly made threatening remarks last week at the district middle school.
Collingswood Police Chief Kevin Carey said police were called to the school Thursday “for concerning comments a student made.”
One student was referred to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office (CCPO) for formal charges, the chief said.
Carey did not have information on the charges, but said the investigation remains active. Further details were not immediately available from CCPO on Friday.
Collingswood Superintendent of Schools Fred McDowell said that after the threat was reported, local police took over the investigation, and that the district and authorities followed established safety protocols.
“A threat of violence was overheard by students, which was reported to middle school administration,” McDowell said.
“There is no credible threat, and we are closely monitoring the situation with the police department,” he said. “We are not aware of any of the details of what took place after police came on the scene.”
Threats of violence against schools across the country have been reported at the kickoff of the 2024-25 academic year, including in South Jersey.
Four juveniles were arrested in Gloucester County in early September after having allegedly circulated threatening messages on social media that closed schools in Woodbury and Deptford for a day, WHYY-FM reported.
Education Week reports that districts from California to Florida have picked up on a surge in violent chatter since the September 4 shooting deaths of four people and wounding of nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
Authorities are hyper-vigilant around any kind of violent messaging, although “threats are generally deemed more imminent if they include specific details, like names, times, and locations,” Education Week Senior Staff Writer Evie Blad wrote.
However, in the course of securing their facilities, districts should be cautious about handling students implicated in such incidents.
“Experts in threat assessment have cautioned against strictly punitive approaches like arrests, noting that many students share baseless threats as a cry for help,” Blad reported.
“Automatic, steep criminal penalties may also make some students less likely to report classmates’ concerning messages because they don’t want to get them in trouble, researchers have said.”
Fortunately, New Jersey has not suffered a school shooting since 1975, although weapons scares and hoax threats have become commonplace in the years since.
In 2018, after quelling threats of violence that stemmed from a social media post, authorities in Audubon hosted James Corbley of the New Jersey Office of School Preparedness & Emergency Planning for a meeting on school safety.
Corbley said that in 80 percent of shootings, at least one other person knows of a shooter’s plans, and that at least two other people know 60 percent of the time.
Ninety-three percent of those are peers of the shooter.
“Information leaks out,” Corbley said. “That’s the chance where people have the opportunity to intervene.”
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