Copycat threats emerge after deadly Florida school shooting

While some students are planning a march to the White House to get lawmakers' attention concerning gun control, other students have been arrested over copycat threats about planning a school shooting. These threats and a long list of student arrests have come after a gunman killed 17 students and adults in Florida last week. Authorities have been busy following up and arresting students who are threatening to shoot up their own Schools.

List of arrests

An 18-year-old student was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats after he confessed to plotting a mass shooting with two other students at the upcoming graduation ceremony at his Shade-Central City High School in Pennsylvania.

A 17-year-old student also threatened to shoot up the same high school. He was arrested on Sunday after family members reported him.

Foley Middle School in Foley, Alabama was not exempt because an eighth-grade student made terrorist threats against that school. He was arrested after he allegedly threatened to shoot up the school.

A teenage girl posted on Instagram that students would be killed at Central Charter School. The 13-year-old student was arrested. The school she referred to is in Broward County, Florida where the 19-year-old went on a shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week. At Breckinridge County Middle School in Kentucky, a 14-year-old student said he wanted to stab his schoolmates with a knife.

He was charged with attempted murder.

Three people were arrested in Pensacola, Florida for threatening schools in the area. There have been many other threats about mass shootings in schools around the country. It is quite concerning that many of the recent threats are coming from younger students.

Why the increase in student threats?

Recently there have been more threats about school shootings than ever before. Lawmakers, parents, teachers and innocent students are wondering why there has been an increase in threats.

A professor of psychology at Nova Southeastern University in Florida agrees with many others that the outbreak is because of the national coverage of school shootings that causes unrest in students who are already thinking about violence.

Dr. Scott Poland indicates that most of the threats come from students who are not connected to the school. He concludes that all threats should be taken seriously no matter how minor they appear to be.