In the past two weeks, several Tucson students have been arrested for making online threats of mass shootings targeted at local schools, with the youngest student arrested being 11 years old.

In just one case on Thursday, Sept. 19, Tucson police reported finding knives and a gun magazine in a high school on the east side of Tucson. 

Since the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, where two teachers and two students were killed, there has been an increase in social media threats of this nature across the country with at least 45 states reporting threats made to schools by students. 

“I know teachers have been having hard conversations with students. I know a lot of students are worried and traumatized and I am sure because it seems like it’s just a constant thing happening. We just had a magazine found at a high school,” Tucson Unified School District Board Member Sadie Shaw said. 

According to a news release from the City of Tucson, “Viral school threats were being shared, showing different images with other school names in the Tucson area, which resulted in over one hundred 9-1-1 calls.” 

Shaw shared on her Instagram page the news release and Arizona’s Revised Statute 15-841(H), which outlines the consequences of mandatory expulsion for students who threaten educational institutions. 

Shaw’s Instagram caption read, “I want to encourage all parents and guardians to talk to their children about the seriousness of school threats and the potential consequences. If you or your child come upon a school threat on social media or elsewhere, please call our School Safety Department at 520-584-7676 (open 24/7) or 911.” 

Shaw said that the school board and the Tucson Police Department are doing what they can to limit the access that students have to weapons, but said that Arizona faces challenges in controlling firearm access because of loopholes that allow purchases of firearms without background checks. 

“We can do a lot more with legislation federally and statewide and we can close up some of these loopholes so that it is more difficult for students to get their hands on a gun and commit these atrocities,” Shaw said. 

“We’ve partnered with Pima County, and now gun locks are available at every school site for parents to request through the office,” Shaw said. “Each year, it seems things change and get worse. We’re doing our best to stay flexible and adapt to the times.”

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