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Utah County elementary schools receive school shooting threats

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A graph from the Statewide Information and Analysis Center (SIAC) shows potential school threats reported between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022. According to the graph, most threats involved guns and planned attacks. (Jerrilynn Applegate, SIAC)

An investigation is underway after 12 elementary schools in the Alpine, Nebo and Provo school districts received phone calls with false school shooting threats on Nov. 15.

Staff arrived on the morning of Nov. 15 to find voicemails threatening shootings. The voicemails were reportedly left after hours the night before, Communications Director for Alpine School District Rich Stowell said.

“The caller was saying that we needed to be on alert for a different person who was going to come to the school. He said, ‘Be aware of this other person who has made threats to show up at a school and shoot the place up with a machine gun,’” Stowell said.

Stowell added that Alpine School District is always on alert and taking steps to ensure student safety, detailing safety assessments that happen at each school.

“They’re looking for things like the doors being locked during school hours. What kinds of escape routes are available at a school? Are you doing your fire and shooter drills? Do you know who to contact in an emergency, and are you connected with your local law enforcement official?” Stowell said. “All of these safety assessments will be completed by the end of the calendar year, so within the next month.”

The process for Alpine School District’s safety assessments can be viewed on YouTube.

This situation comes after a similar incident affected high schools across the state, including Nebo School District’s Spanish Fork High School, in March 2023.

Jerrilynn Applegate, Supervisory Intelligence Analyst with the Statewide Information and Analysis Center (SIAC), shared a slideshow with information about threats to Utah schools.

According to the slideshow, there were 42 incidents where Utah schools were placed under security protocol due to a threat between Aug. 16 and Oct. 5, 2023.

Alpine School District hasn’t tracked the number of similar incidents in the past, but they plan to begin doing so, Stowell said.

“Going forward, we’re going to be able to spot trends better. But, our school safety teams have told me that nationally, they’ve seen an upward trend in these types of threats,” Stowell said.

He added that the district will continue to prioritize communication and collaboration with the community.

“We really thrive in Alpine School District when we have good collaboration among school officials, law enforcement and parents,” he said. “That strong partnership requires good communication, so one of our areas of focus is to make sure that we are communicating quickly and accurately with our parents, and that we’re getting the right kind of information from our law enforcement partners so we can assess what the true threat is.”

Communication is essential in ensuring they don’t misread the threat level, Stowell said.

“Ultimately, our job is to educate kids, and we know that these students are going to get the best educational experience when they feel safe and when they are safe,” Stowell said.

Suspected threats to school safety should be reported to local law enforcement by dialing 911.