Montana has just launched a new program designed to track and rapidly share school threat information among school safety officials. The program’s start coincides with the start of the new academic year.
The goal is to keep school districts informed and prepared for potential safety concerns.
Montana’s first school threat of the new academic year was reported by the Ronan School District during its first week of class.
The student who allegedly threatened to ‘shoot up the high school’ was quickly identified last week and is no longer allowed on school property. No one was injured.
Last school year, credible threats of violence prompted several K-12 school lockdowns across Montana. Some threats were made by local students, and others were determined to be so-called swatting pranks, or phony threats and false reports of active violence.
The Montana Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is now actively monitoring school threat activity and sharing that information with participating school districts and local law enforcement agencies.
I recently spoke with DCI Supervising Agent Bryan Gortmaker about the new program and the rising number of school threats.
Bryan Gortmaker: Most of the swatting calls or the swatting incidents that focused on schools, that we knew of this last school year, tended to be out of country or at least out of that jurisdiction. It looked like they were interested in trying to disrupt the school day or that community. And so that really brought to our attention the need to better bring that information between Montana's agencies and federal agencies and try to find out what patterns exist within those.
Edward O'Brien: Mr. Gortmaker, prior to this project we're talking about today, how have these sorts of incidents been treated on a system wide basis? Does that make sense, so a lockdown happens at school Z, but we're Schools A through Y looped in with that information, or was it kept pretty localized?
Bryan Gortmaker: I think it has been kept pretty localized and I think that is where we kind of find ourselves an opportunity to help in this mission to where the particular school district that may be the recipient of a school swatting call or a bomb threat call through this network that we're creating, we can help grab that information and share it statewide because the neighboring jurisdiction may be seeing this on social media as well, or it may be replicated with using the same type of call or threat in a neighboring jurisdiction. And I think that more of the agencies, if they're aware of what's going on, it can help them measure their response as to what's going on and even prepare their school districts and law enforcement agencies. If they receive a call, they can do some preparation ahead of time so that they know how to respond accurately and appropriately.
Edward O'Brien: Preparation ahead of time could mean what?
Bryan Gortmaker: Maybe it could mean an efficient way of taking care of the threat or making that message to the parents that, you know, we understand this is happening, this has happened elsewhere, or maybe it even is how they would clear the school and prepare for the school day in a manner that would be more efficient.
Edward O'Brien: In knowledge is power, of course, I wonder if this could lead to fewer lockdowns, more lockdowns, increase student and staff safety.
Bryan Gortmaker: All of those decisions would be locally driven. But if we can empower them with the latest and best information, I think that hopefully we can make for less disruption in the school day. And it takes place on a platform that is only for law enforcement. And so that's how we share that information is on this established and secure platform to those school resource officers, as well as agencies that don't have school resource officers, it could be a sheriff's office or a police department in a smaller agency that they don't have the availability to have an SRO on their staff, but they're able to become part of this network and likewise, be prepared for those threats that may come their way.
Edward O'Brien: Where did this idea come from?
Bryan Gortmaker: Oh, I think it's just homegrown within our agency here. It was something that we saw as a need, and definitely there was a lack of information being exchanged. And so we just thought this was a great opportunity to help outreach to those local agencies to fill the gap.
Edward O'Brien: How many schools and districts are currently participating?
Bryan Gortmaker: I don't have an exact number. You know, I have approximately over 30 school resource officers and some of them may be within the same school district. Some of them may serve more than one school district, especially if you're in a smaller agency where, for instance, a sheriff's office may have a school resource officer that moves from town to town based upon the day of the week. So I don't have an exact number of school districts at this point, but it is growing in size. And I think hopefully by the end of this fall, we'll have the majority of Montana school resource officers within our network.
Bryan Gortmaker is a Supervising Agent with the Montana Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
