Community reflects on recent school violence threats in CHCCS

Laura Hill was in a work meeting when she received texts from her son at Carrboro High School that the school had entered secure mode, a protocol utilized by Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to safeguard students and staff within buildings during emergencies by locking all doors.

Carrboro High School entered secure mode the day after a social media post circulated online where multiple CHCCS students were mentioned as potential targets for violence.

The Chapel Hill Police Department later released a statement deeming the social media post as not credible and identified a juvenile responsible.

“You just don't even know how to take it," Hill, who's the parent of a Carrboro High School senior and a Culbreth Middle School seventh grader, said. "It's all very unsettling — it's like, every week.”

Ian Baker, Hill's son, said he was thrown off by the situation and could not focus on learning for the rest of the day. 

“I feel like, if there was a really bad threat and stuff, we wouldn't know until it was too late,” Baker said.

CHCCS Chief Communications Officer Andy Jenks said threats of school violence are not unique to CHCSS. 

“You can call around to every school district in our area, and they will tell you that they deal with this multiple times throughout a school year,” Jenks said.

Earlier this month in Alamance County, two juveniles were charged with threats of mass violence on educational property. An 11-year-old in Gaston County was also arrested in September in connection with school shooting threats posted on social media.

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said the Orange County Sheriff's Office has charged students in the past with threats of mass violence via social media, causing concern about why students do this.

“Some just want to be disruptive," Blackwood said. "Some want to have attention, and some feel like its power to sit behind a keyboard and create a wave of fear and remain anonymous by doing so."

Blackwood said these threats are most common at the beginning and end of the school year, during exams or when a community experiences a traumatic event. 

Protocol following a social media threat varies depending on the situation, Jenks said. In the specific instance of school violence threats, he said protocol is to ensure law enforcement is notified and communicate to students and families.

In a post to X, CHCCS announced that additional police will be present in schools throughout the investigation of school violence threats on social media.

Increased police presence can signify multiple things, including a more visible safety resource officer in schools, notification of highway patrol and nonuniform investigators, Blackwood said.

“It provides an additional layer of visibility and also comfort and confidence to our students and families that the appropriate authorities are involved in monitoring an ongoing situation,” Jenks said.

Hill said she appreciated the increased police presence, but also expressed concerns for students.

“I appreciate that they're being proactive in doing something,” she said. “You don't want to have the kids feel like they're walking into a prison every day. That's not what school should be.” 

Rosa Li, a teaching assistant professor in the UNC department of psychology and neuroscience, said there are multiple ways stress affects adolescents.

“If you're getting these threats every single day, eventually you just don't take them as seriously anymore because you just can't be under a level of stress all the time,” she said.

She said another possibility is that stress can push students into a constantly threatened state. Research shows that stress events earlier in life, including school violence, can alter the way the brain develops, Li said.

Threats of violence on school property are classified as a Class H felony, with a penalty of up to 25 months in prison.

“You're not going to remain anonymous if you send one of these posts out," Blackwood said. "We're going to find out who did it. We're going to find out where it originated from, and we will hold those who create those posts designed to disrupt the school accountable."

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