Legislators need to get busy to end threats at schools
Overseas threats of school shootings not even discussed at UN General Assembly
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024 Column
It was in this space Sunday that I wrote about another shooting in America. Another mass shooting. The count so far in 2024 for mass shootings is 217 across the USA.
This time, it was in Birmingham, Alabama with four dead and 17 injured after multiple shooters opened fire on a crowd waiting in line outside a nightspot in Birmingham’s bustling Five Points South district. Last time, it was an hour outside Atlanta in another mass shooting at a high school. Two students were killed. Two teachers were shot and kill ed. Nobody knows how a 14-year-old got a gun to cause the tragedy. He surrendered afterward to police and is custody facing murder charges.
Different day. Same story. It was just last summer that I warned how politicians would be back to normal in a few days. It's the same every time. Gun violence needs to be addressed with real solutions. Both times after the two most recent tragedies, I again shared a column I wrote last summer on June 27th when an Oakland County shooting touched my life becauset some of my own grandchildren's friends were thinking about going to a nearby water park where a shooting occurred. This time in Davison this week, stupidity again touched my life.
We have so many fake threats at schools these days that an exact count can't be found with a Google search.
Axios published a story today saying "threats of bombs, shooters and other dangers disrupt learning and stir community-wide anxiety about school safety. Responding to them can also be expensive and time-consuming for local governments and law enforcement."
In a single day last week, the Axios story reports that schools in Tennessee, South Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Texas, Maryland and Michigan all received threats. Every one came from an overseas source authorities in the USA can't go after to throw in jail.
And that's exactly the word we're getting out of Davison where the high school went on lockdown on Monday after a caller said five pipe bombs were ready to go off around the building as well as there being a kid in math class with a gun ready to shoot up the school.
Mid-Michigan Now News told us last night that Davison City Police Chief Jay Rendon says his detectives have already tracked down where the call came from, and it was from overseas. Nothing can be done.
Davison Township police were dispatched to Davison High School with Davison's city police officers, deputies from the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and troopers from the Michigan State Police. What a massive waste of manpower when eventually discovering it was a fake threat.
What a massive headache for so many parents across the district. All five of my grandkids live in Davison, so hearing the words "there's a lockdown because of a threat" sends chills up and down your spine. Bus rides home for students were delayed of elementary and middle school students. Parents were directed to pick-up destination to get their high school kids.
What a mess.
,
It's not the fault of school officials or police. They were simply trying to keep children safe.
The United Nations just held their two-day General Assembly meetings in New York City. Leaders in nations all over the world were there. President Joe Biden spoke. But not a word about the growing problem of threats against USA schools from foreign actors. It's a problem that needs to be stopped.
Every time there's a mass shooting at a school, America's politicians babble on and on about gun violence yet nothing ever gets done to fix the problem. All these threats of violence keep happening more and more, yet we don't even get any babbling from politicians about trying to fix the problem. Our legislators, both at the state and federal levels, need to address this growing problem.
How about this? We're the most powerful nation in the world. You have idiots who want to call and make phony threats about blowing up our schools? We have the technology to find where the call came from and your nation's leaders need to cooperate in arresting them for us and shipping them to America to face a long prison sentence. How about we toss them in prison and every so often, let's peek in their cell to threaten to blow up the key to open it.
-----------------------------------------------------
Mike Killbreath appears on Metro Flint News/Talk Radio via The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekday mornings from 8 am until 9:30 am. He's an award-winning newspaper columnist and investigative reporter who is the former long-time owner of the local Metro Flint area chain of 14 community newspapers. This fall will be his 50th year as a journalist. He also hosts a new weekly national TV show known as The American Crusaders on cable TV and various OTT TV live streaming platforms.
