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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFrom two teens accused of plotting a Columbine-style shooting at Harns Marsh Middle School last month to a gun found in a backpack at East Lee County High School. There were three new threats made in Collier County Public Schools on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those threats were made at Immokalee, Lely, and Palmetto Ridge High Schools, respectively. And, it happened in Hendry and DeSoto Counties as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Thomas is a professor of Forensic Studies at FGCU and studies school threats and violence. WINK News asked what could be causing so many of these threats to happen and be exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
School threats are becoming far too common across Southwest Florida. Terry is a mother of a Collier County student. \u201cYou\u2019re terrified when you hear something like this because you don\u2019t know if it\u2019s real or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Avier Jonhson is a DeSoto County parent. \u201cHearing that right there kind of got me kind of concerned,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mari Cruz is also a DeSoto County parent. \u201cIt\u2019s really concerning because you want your kids to go to school and be safe there,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday alone, investigators had to look into school threats made in DeSoto, Hendry and Collier Counties. And, there were multiple other students arrested in Lee County this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPick a day in this country, you will see that there is either some threat or there is some shooting. To the point where it has almost become commonplace, which is pretty scary,\u201d said Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas says that in the past, some counties have increased punishments as a deterrent for threatening violence in this way. \u201cI think when there are pranksters and they don\u2019t have mental health issues, sure, that takes care of one group of students\u2026 one group of kids,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cBut on the other side of this coin, is you have a series of kids who have mental health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas believes the idea of making a school threat may already be in the minds of some students. So, seeing one happen could lead to other threats. \u201cIt could be that they\u2019ve thought about it and now this validates it. That incident validates it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also says that kids need positive role models and healthy coping mechanisms in their lives. However, many students don\u2019t have those things. \u201cOur babysitter for our kids has become technology\u2026 computers, tablets, cell phones. And we allow our kids to bury their heads in there for hours without ever intervening in what they\u2019re watching,\u201d said Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas did point to two other factors as well. He said many kids were learning from home during the pandemic, so there could have been increasing social pressure. He also thinks bullying could be playing a role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MORE:<\/strong> If your child is a victim of bullying, the Charlotte, Collier and Lee County School Districts have resources available to them. Many of you, especially parents, are aware of the threats of violence in schools and weapons brought to campus recently. Over the past couple of months, we\u2019ve seen an increasing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[817],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51056,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51054\/revisions\/51056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Collier County<\/a>
Lee County<\/a>
Charlotte County<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"