Anonymous School Threats: What to Do Before, During, and After

In the weeks following high-profile school shootings, threats against schools historically increase. Just two weeks after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there were at least 638 threats made against schools. Less than a month after the Sept. 4 Apalachee High School shooting, hundreds of threats were made against K-12 schools, resulting in the arrest of more than 700 students.

To help schools navigate the influx in threats — now and in the future — the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released several toolkits, including one which offers strategies for mitigating, responding to, and recovering from these threats.

The “Anonymized Threat Response Guidance: A Reference Guide for K-12 Schools” provides streamlined information for K-12 stakeholders to understand and utilize some of the best practices from the federal agency’s similarly-named toolkit, which highlights how K-12 schools can work with law enforcement and community partners in addressing these pervasive and costly threats.

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What to Do to Mitigate or Prevent Anonymous School Threats

To prevent school threats and mitigate their impact, CISA recommends schools take the following steps:

1. Build and maintain relationships with first responders through regular communications and training
   • Reach out to police, fire, and EMS
2. Develop an emergency operations plan (EOP) that includes an annex specifically for anonymous threats
   • Train applicable school staff on how to use the EOP annex
   • Share and validate your EOP with police and other first responders
   • Update the plan annually
3. Conduct age- and developmentally-appropriate drills
   • Invite police and other first responders to participate
4. Create and maintain protocols for communicating with families during emergencies
   • Share protocols with police to ensure their communications align with your school’s
5. Establish a multidisciplinary threat assessment team that meets regularly to assess and manage threats
   • Ensure team members are up-to-date on training
6. Maintain access to resources to support the mental well-being of the school community

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What to Do During an Anonymous School Threat

While preparation is key to prevention, it’s virtually impossible to prevent all anonymous school threats. However, there are steps CISA says can be taken during an anonymous threat incident that are likely to mitigate the impact. Those include:

1. Treat the threat as initially credible
2. Engage law enforcement to determine which assets need to be on scene immediately to ensure safety
   • Implement additional safety measures
   • Consider disruption and trauma of community when deciding how overt to make the response, particularly if threat proves to be a hoax
   • Provide timely and accurate updates to families
3. Gather as much information about the threat as possible
   • Include law enforcement in the investigation
   • Speak with students and staff
   • Review online platforms such as social media
   • Provide timely and accurate updates to families
4. Modify initial response actions based on information gathered
   • Scale up intensity and overtness of actions if level of concern escalates
   • Scale down response if level of concern drops
   • Provide timely and accurate updates to families
5. Resolve the threat
   • Collaborate with law enforcement to decide when response actions (e.g. lockdown) can be lifted
6. Communicate to families when emergency has been resolved
   • Coordinate communications with law enforcement and other partners

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What to Do After an Anonymous School Threat

Following an anonymous school threat, whether it is deemed credible or a hoax, CISA urges schools to:

1. Provide access to resources to address trauma and stress
   • Offer counseling and other mental health services
   • Facilitate opportunities for community feedback
2. Plan an after-action review of the emergency
   • Incorporate entities from inside the school community and other partners involved in threat response
   • Identify processes that went well and areas for improvement
   • Implement changes to the EOP as necessary
3. Continue to communicate about ongoing efforts around safety and recovery
   • Communicate to the school community about new safety measures implemented
   • Offer details about accessing mental health services and ways to provide community feedback

To help schools tackle and organize these recommendations, CISA’s reference guide offers several worksheets. Those start on Page 5 of the kit. Download it here.