Well, it’s happened again. Classes at Garfield High School were canceled “due to a threat that is currently being investigated by Garfield Police,” according to a message on the school’s twitter account. And then, the threat is always deemed to be not credible.

How many times do we have to go through this before we realize that nobody who wants to do harm to a school and/or its students is going to warn them first?

(Editor's Note: Garfield officials said later Tuesday they shut down the school after an Instagram post was found referencing a threat to shoot up the school. Officials deemed the threat not credible.)

 

The fact is, anytime there’s a threat made publicly, it always turns out to be a prankster who probably just wants to close the school so he can skip the midterm he hasn’t studied for.

I’m not saying that it isn’t frightening to get a threat like this, but facts are facts. None of the horrific acts of violence against schools have ever been preceded by a threat. And now, another New Jersey school is closed for no reason with kids having to make up the day later on in the year. I’m not quoting actual statistics here, but I’ve been around for awhile and can give a broad estimate here: NJ History has shown that almost 100 percent of threats made to schools are not carried out. And conversely, almost 100 percent of acts of violence in schools were not preceded by a threat. Social media has made threats even easier to make and broadcast. That’s pretty alluring to a kid who wants attention! If we ignore them, they’ll go away.

I understand that schools have to cover their butts, believing, "but what if it DOES happen?" I get that. But still, paying attention to these threats just feeds the beast.

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