DUNDEE, Mich. — Dundee Community Schools in Monroe County, Michigan, has dealt with four school threats in the past couple of weeks.
Superintendent Scott Leach said the first one occurred on Oct. 26, when several Dundee Middle School students overheard a conversation between two classmates discussing committing violent acts against the school. The students quickly reported it to the school's administration and resource officers, who took immediate action.
"We didn't even go into a lockdown because they had secured the individuals and checked their belongings, and we knew they didn't possess anything at this time," Leach said.
The pair were soon expelled and are facing juvenile charges in Monroe County. Leach said he hoped that would be the end of it, but instead, it started a domino effect.
More threats have been found written on the walls of school bathrooms in both the middle school and high school.
While Leach said unlike the first they have all been ruled to be non-credible, the constant threats are severely affecting the schools' ability to teach.
"It's a lot of time and resources and sometimes you don't get to the bottom of them, so it's very frustrating but we do our due diligence," he said.
The threats are not just putting strain on the school. Dundee Police Chief Randy Sahl said constantly responding to these incidents ties up the department's already limited resources.
"It is a community problem," Sahl said. "It's not something that just the police can solve or just the schools can solve. It's going to be everyone coming to the table. How do we stop kids from making these threats or making these calls?"
Since school threats are a nationwide issue, Leach said that's the million-dollar question every school district in the U.S. is asking right now.
"Obviously, there's some education in explaining to students the seriousness of making a threat, but it goes far deeper than that," Leach said. "This is also a mental health issue, supports at home, it's far deeper than just the school."
The constant threats have caused concern for the district's parents as well.
"That's what people have expressed to me, is they're scared," Leach said. "No one wants to have to guess whether they're sending their child to school, and they may not come back. That's the society we live in and we do everything we can to make sure that they're safe."
Sahl said he intends to meet with Leach soon to begin coming up with solutions going into the new year to put a stop to school threats.