ST. LOUIS—After a week that has seen at least seven alleged threats targeting area schools and a still-new academic year that has seen dozens of them in the St. Louis region, local and federal authorities are pulling out all the stops to warn the public and juveniles in particular, that it’s a serious problem that won’t go unsolved, or unpunished.

What You Need To Know

  • Courage2Report Missouri: call 1-866-748-7047, text "C2R" to 738477 or online at courage2reportmo.com or the Courage2ReportMo mobile app 
  • Illinois operates a system called Safe2Help available at 844-4-SAFEIL, by texting SAFE2 to 72332 or emailing HELP@Safe2HelpIL.com

  • Federal cases can result in sentences of up to five years in prison and 20 if someone is injured. A case resulting in a death could end up in a life sentence

  • Officials said Friday that the St. Louis region has faced dozens of school-related hoaxes since the start of the academic year, with at least seven this week

Missouri’s Courage2Report system, which takes confidential tips on threats of school violence and other school safety issues, has taken in the same number of school shooting threats since July 1, 102 tips, as it did in all of 2023, and more than it did in 2022, when it received 95. Each tip doesn’t necessarily mean a different incident, as more than one tip can come in for a single incident. 

But officials from the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, several local police departments and the Parkway School district gathered at the FBI’s St. Louis field office to march in lock-step, about consequences for making school threats. Those consequences are rarely reported to the public because the cases tend to involve juveniles, whose legal proceedings are kept confidential unless a suspect is tried as an adult. 

“At the federal level, you can be sentenced up to five years. Not a joke. If someone is injured, that sentence can go up to 20 years. Not a joke. And a death occurs, you could be facing a life sentence. Again, not a joke,” said Ashley T. Johnson, the FBI’s new Agent-In-Charge for St. Louis.

“If you choose to make a school threat, you are taken into custody by law enforcement, you will not be going home at the end of the day,” said Florissant Police Chief Tim Fagan. “We will identify who’s responsible. I think often young people have the assumption that they can create a fake account, in some way that will shield them. It will not.”

“When students make threats, with that comes discipline and consequences,” said Parkway School District Coordinator of Student Discipline Greg Wagener said. A Parkway elementary school district building was targeted with a phony bomb threat Thursday. “Every student who has made a threat so far this year has received, in some way, a long-term suspension.

Fagan said in St. Louis County this month, six juveniles have been referred to juvenile authorities for making a terroristic threat, with four of them coming from Florissant since the start of the school year last month. He described them coming in at a fast and furious pace. U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming said she didn't want to call it the worst she's seen here, but that it was close to the top.

The cases are emotionally draining and a distraction for students and staff, and an unwanted hassle for law enforcement resources. Authorities not only have to investigate the threat, but then often need to surge up resources in the aftermath, working with school district security staff to beef up a presence at a school or schools. Some cases brought at the federal level can result in judgments that build in reimbursement for law enforcement and other emergency response.

Officials are also reminding the public not to share threats they see on social media, which can add to the time it takes authorities to find the responsible party. Threats can be reported directly to police, or through Missouri’s Courage2Report system or in Illinois, the Safe2Help program.