More training needed to handle social media threats targeting schools: School safety expert

In response to the staggering uptick in swatting incidents and social media threats to schools across the nation, one school safety expert says more training needs to happen.

"I think it's important for schools to be proactive in their training," explained Amanda Klinger, Director of Operations for The Educator's School Safety Network.

"That is not just about an active shooter, but that is about violence prevention in general. I think it's important for families and communities to take a look at the relationships and the breakdown in relationships, the breakdown in respect and personal responsibility, and all the things that we're seeing in our society at large clearly manifest themselves in our schools as well. So the good news is there's a lot that we can do," Klinger added.

Just last week in The Triangle, several schools were put on code yellow and red lockdown in response to threats.

In one case, a gun was discovered on campus at Rolesville School.

Researchers with The Educators School Safety Network say this school year there's been a 250 percent nationwide increase in swatting incidents where someone reports an active shooter and it turns out to be someone outside the school calling it in.

Social media threats are the other issue seeing a huge spike.

I think part of the reason that we see this continual increase is that by and large we continue to focus on the wrong things," Klinger added.

"We work on active shooter, and that's it. But yet, we know that it's much more likely that you're going to have a threat like this, that you're going to have a violent fight. You can have non-custodial parents. You're going to have a medical emergency, you're going to have a weather emergency. We call it an all-hazards approach to school safety, a comprehensive all-hazards approach instead of the vast majority of teachers in the United States get active shooter training, and that's it."

Klinger says the entire school staff should be trained on all hazards and parents and staff should be included in the discussions.

The Educators School Safety Network offers a free online on-demand school safety course called School Safety 101.