On September 13, floods of shoppers evacuated from the West County Mall in Des Peres, running and screaming. I was among them.
Hiding behind parked cars as legions of police and SWAT vehicles drove by, rumors spread about what had happened: an alleged shooter in the mall. Viewing the hordes of people running to the nearest exits, it seemed that day like there was one objective—get out of the building as quickly as possible.
I saw many people crying and calling their families in the parking lot, afraid for their lives as police cars filed in.
However, on that day at the mall no gun was ever drawn—Des Peres police report that the disruption was a false panic caused over a small fight which broke out in the food court. The deadly projectile? Not a bullet, but a flying chair thrown by one angry mallgoer toward another.
Events of hysteria such as these are not uncommon, and in the wake of school shootings and political assassinations such as that of Charlie Kirk, people are more on edge than ever.
Recently, in colleges around the United States, bomb and gun threats have caused similar campus evacuations to those seen at the mall, leaving people in distress even though said threats are fake.
Several college campuses, including Kansas State University and The University of Arkansas, have additionally been ‘swatted,’ (law enforcement has been fooled into responding to fake scenarios,) by prank callers looking to cause a disturbance.
In light of recent events and the political tension in The United States right now, such threats seem far scarier. Students are often left shaken by such frenzies — and callers are often untraceable and go unpunished.
“Anything like that always can traumatize a person,” said Stephanie Mullins, one of the student counselors here at Lafayette.
According to her, news of school shootings and bomb threats “affect kids’ feeling of safety in school” so much to the point that she believes the overall perception of school as a safe place has shifted over her 36 year career.
“School was once considered a really super safe place, but kids have seen images that do make them sometimes fearful,” Mullins said.
Three years ago, in November, Marquette High School faced similar disturbances where a student AirDropped a bomb threat to another, resulting in a schoolwide evacuation.
Another threat, this time a shooting threat, was sent by the same student the very next day, causing more panic.
The student responsible was caught in the end, but by then the damage had already been done.
The chaos as the school was being evacuated left several students emotionally impacted and on-edge. The school’s functions were shifted to virtual learning for two days the next week to give students and staff time to recuperate.
Mullins says Lafayette has never had a major threat against it like this. However, when we have had false intruder alarms, even in the case of a simple technical malfunction, she says, students have become very anxious.
In the events of threats, especially threats targeted toward schools, police forces of cities and neighboring cities are often deployed overwhelmingly to a single location.
In Des Peres, this happened; police cars and SWAT vehicles from all over could be seen driving in, racing to respond to a false alarm. At Marquette, a similar response was made, with police from all neighboring municipalities rushing to the scene.
Meghan Hall is the on-premises City of Wildwood police officer here at Lafayette. She was on the scene responding to the Marquette bomb and shooting threats.
According to Hall, every reported threat against a Rockwood school is taken seriously—even those which are unlikely to be real.
A similar police response to that seen at the mall and at Marquette is to be expected in any case.
This puts significant strain on local resources; for this reason, threats against schools come with a hefty felony charge.
Though Mullins adds that our relationship with local police covers Rockwood’s bills in case of an emergency.
According to a 2024 systematic review by Jillian Peterson et al., around 71 percent of people who make hoax threats against schools are caught, and the felony charge, given 87 percent of the time to such actors, looms large to dissuade any would-be hoaxers.
However, clever hoaxers who mask their identities well may be able to routinely disrupt the peace, leading to massive strain on local resources and a serious impediment to students’ learning.
ASU’s Center for Problem Oriented Policing as well as the school safety consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services advise schools to assess the likelihood that threats are real based on the identity of the person making the threat and their reason for doing so.
Though as Dr. Kenneth Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services puts it, rumors about violence at schools “typically become greater than the issue, problem, or incident itself.”
This happened at Marquette, where the hoaxer’s message was able to spread between students before evacuation was even considered; in cases such as these, Rockwood School District, and most schools, for that matter, have no backup plan.
One thing schools are able to do, however, is work against the atmosphere of anxiety created by the popular conception of schools as being prone to violent incidents. According to ASU, “Fear of targeted violence in schools far outstrips the actual risk.”
Students’ fears of school shootings may create a feedback loop of anxiety, leading to a more exaggerated and hectic response to threats, encouraging repeat or copycat threats like the back-to-back threats seen at Marquette.
Most threats aren’t serious; so when evacuating due to a threat or hiding due to an intruder alarm, it is important to assuage students’ fears, keep them calm, and reassure them of the unlikelihood of any harm.
In the end, schools are generally safe places where students are encouraged to thrive. While anxiety over school violence may not necessarily help its view as such, students, educators, parents and faculty alike can all help each other view school as a safe and nurturing place for a community.
