Every parent’s top priority is their children’s safety, and every child wants to feel safe while obtaining their education. For many students within the borderland their safety has been corrupted by numerous threats made to schools around the area.
Schools like Andress, Eastwood, Gadsen and Irvin High School have faced false threats this school year already. Putting an alarming amount of concern to not only students but the entire community.
“Students can’t learn if they’re concerned about threats, if they’re worried about what’s happening around them. When these threats occur, when we have these lockdowns, it’s a big disruption for the class. And we don’t need this in our schools,” said Ysleta Independent School District Police Department Police Chief Eduardo Holguin in a statement to the El Paso Times.
While school shooting cases occur across the nation, more concern for the safety of students grows. Regardless of if a threat is factual or not, the matter is taken very seriously and mentally challenges students, staff, faculty and the community.
FBI Special Agent Valerie Venegas shares the importance of social media monitoring and the severity of any possible threat.
“I think that a big part of that unfortunately, is because of our experiences on Aug. 3,” said Venegas. “We just don’t want to see something like that again.”
El Paso FBI exceeds in monitoring social media posts and using technology to crack down on where a threat may derive from.
In the means of keeping the community in the loop, El Pasoans share any form of information amongst each other. While citizens spread the word out to ‘protect’ one another, spreading a post that contains a threat can do more harm than good.
“The problem when it is shared multiple times over and over again, the biggest problem becomes that we now can’t see the original post,” said Venegas. “When we’re trying to find who the original poster was, it is so embedded now under thousands of shares that we can’t see it anymore. That’s why we generally ask people if you see a threat, especially on social media, take a screenshot of that original post and send it to law enforcement.”
It is not just El Paso that is cracking down on the severity of these threats. As the nation continues to see more school shootings such as the Apalachee High School incident in September, law enforcement stresses security and safety more and more each day.
UTEP student Brandon Camacho shared his concerns about safety on campus amid all the news on recent threats made to local schools.
“I mean isn’t the community tired of hearing about this? No student should fear their life while being in class,” said Camacho. “I question what I would do if a threat was made here on campus, but it is scary to even think about that.”
Threats do not just occur in the blink of an eye; they derive from preparation and planning. Venegas shared that individuals generally don’t just ‘snap,’ it comes from heavy mental health spaces.
As younger generations live their life on the internet, some might not be able to communicate their emotions sufficiently.
For some, this can grow into a larger burden that becomes too heavy for one to cope, potentially acting on in a form of violence. Venegas shared that this information has been conducted not only by the FBI but the Secret Service as well, with this research it allows law enforcement to teach the community about possible red flags.
“With that information, we’re able to go out into the community, train and educate not only parents but educators on letting them know about some of the things to look for,” said Venegas.
No threat is considered a laughing matter. For any individual who witnesses a threat made online, report the post to law enforcement officials.
Marco Hinojosa is the audience and engagement editor and may be reached at [email protected]
