Last week, two children were killed when a gunman opened fire during a Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Eighteen others were injured.

The next day, police at the University of Pittsburgh sent out a campus-wide alert informing students, faculty and staff that there was an “unconfirmed” report of an armed person at Pitt’s law school in Oakland.

The alert was canceled 20 minutes later. Police had determined there was no shooter.

In the coming days, several other colleges and universities were also targeted with swatting – fabricated reports of an emergency, prompting a response from law enforcement.

While higher education institutions seemed to be targeted after the Minneapolis shooting, school districts are not immune from fake threats of violence.

Over the past several years, and with increasing frequency, our local school districts have received bomb or shooting threats.

Thankfully, all of them have been hoaxes, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t – and aren’t – real consequences.

When a threat is reported, first responders are pulled away from actual calls for help, and school district leaders lock down schools, disrupting learning.

But perhaps the most profound impact is the fear and stress students, parents and district employees feel when they hear a report of violence in their school. Not only does that fear and stress have the potential to cause deep emotional wounds, those things also can distract students from effective learning.

A 2023 article published by the American Psychological Association noted, “Students who are constantly worried about a toxic stressor, such as gun violence, devote more mental resources to emotions and fewer to executive functions, including learning, memory, and sustaining attention.”

That result, according to APA experts, occurs when there are real acts of violence or fake threats.

“These tragedies are happening far too often, and the result is that many young people are feeling this constant back-of-the-mind stress,” said Dr. Erika Felix, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Many times, the students themselves cause that feeling.

In both Washington and Fayette counties, they’ve been charged for the made-up threats.

Good.

They should be.

There is no excuse for inflicting that terror on their peers and the community as a whole.

— Observer-Reporter, Washington, Pa.