[I]n the first year Vermont collected data on threats made against schools, 43 were reported, according to the state police’s Vermont Intelligence Center.
Vermont officials didn’t track the number of threats made against schools until earlier this year, when law enforcement thwarted an alleged school shooting plot at Fair Haven Union High School in February.
The Vermont Intelligence Center, a department of the Vermont State Police that identifies of criminal and terrorism-related activity in the state, reported that from January to June there were 22 threats and from July to December there were 21.
A spokesperson for the state police could not be reached for comment.
In an interview with WCAX, Ron LaFond, deputy director of the intelligence center, said the 2018 numbers show that school officials are taking threats seriously and calling on law enforcement with greater urgency.
LaFond added that the data doesn’t necessarily show there has been an increase in threats made against schools in the state.
Though it is difficult extrapolate meaning from the number of threats made against schools in Vermont, it is part of the larger national picture in which 4 million students across the country endured at least one lockdown in the 2017-2018 school year alone, according to The Washington Post.
In an analysis of 20,000 news stories and data from school districts in 31 of the country’s largest cities, The Washington Post found that on a typical day last school year, at least 16 campuses locked down, with nine related to gun violence or related threats.
Across the country, 2018 was the worst year for on-campus gun violence since Columbine, according to the Post. The deadliest school shooting was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February, which left 17 students dead.
Days after the Parkland shooting, law enforcement officers in Vermont apprehended Jack Sawyer, 18, of Poultney, for allegedly planning to carry out a shooting at Fair Haven Union High School. That arrest sparked a statewide push for greater gun control that culminated in a package of legislation signed by Gov. Phil Scott in April.
In December, a janitor, Dick Peck of Moretown, was arrested at Harwood Union High School for allegedly writing a threatening message on a bathroom mirror that said “I am going to kill you all.”
Two weeks ago, law enforcement announced it had stopped a plot to carry out a shooting by two 14-year-old students at Middlebury Union Middle School.