School safety continues to be top of mind for families and staff, especially a week after a deadly stabbing on a Phoenix high school campus.
It’s a safety concern that continues to disrupt schools: reports of social media threats, hoaxes and swatting situations. Several universities across the country in the last week have experienced fake 911 calls for active shooter situations that created chaos and alarm as classes started.
Northern Arizona University, on Monday, also had a report of a gunman on campus; however, it was determined to be a hoax.
🔔 Campus Update 🔔
— NAU (@NAU) August 25, 2025
Earlier today, the NAU Police Department received a report of a person with a gun at Cline Library on the Flagstaff mountain campus.
The report was determined to be a hoax, and at no time was there an active threat to the NAU community pic.twitter.com/1yY7K1xloB
One K-12 school district, Paradise Valley Unified, just a few days ago, also experienced a situation where there was a rumor spread about a possible school threat. The threat, according to the district, was not credible.
“There's a lingering effect that happens when there is a school threat,” said Chris Asmussen, the director of student services for secondary education with Paradise Valley Unified. “The impact was one third of our student body took the next day off out of worry."
According to data provided to ABC15, Phoenix police numbers show more threats typically pop up a month after school starts, in September.
“It's hard to gauge why we have cyclical rises or drops in school threats. Typically, sometimes, they've been tied to critical incidents that have occurred otherwise in the nation,” said Sgt. Kane Kimble, with the Phoenix Police Department.
In September of 2024, Phoenix police saw 83 reported school threats. This came after a school shooting in Georgia. Kimble said the number of school threats includes incidents of students who may have made a threat toward another on school campuses. That number last September is the highest compared to any other month and date in the data going back to 2018.
“Last year, we had a school shooting that occurred elsewhere in the United States, because of the coverage of that, we had a large number of rising school threats here in Arizona,” Kane said.
After the increase in online threats across Arizona last fall, ABC15 held a town hall last October, showing just how severe the issue was. School districts, like Paradise Valley Unified, started to put together campaigns, encouraging students to stop reposting threats they see spread online and instead report them to trusted adults. They’re working with Phoenix police in spreading that message.
“We realized we needed to do something to share with our community that we are aware of the challenge that's before us and that we're addressing that challenge,” Asmussen said.
Police and schools are pleading with families to watch what kids are doing online and hope they educate them on the consequences, which can include jail time.
Kimble said in a situation at Sierra Linda High School last year, the student and their family were fined. Another student, who made online threats to 12 Valley schools, was also arrested and Kimble said the family was fined as well.
"I say to parents: ‘Know what your kids are putting out on the internet.’ A lot of times, kids have an internet persona that you might not be aware about. Be aware of what they’re putting out on the internet,” Kimble continued. “Two, this is not a joke... I think we’ve done enough of this where we know this is not a joke. There are real consequences to this."
School districts and police have working relationships where they work hand-in-hand if any emergency situations come up. They’re hoping that as the school year continues, students will be responsible and not disrupt the learning that’s supposed to be going on in classrooms.
“The safest place for any child is to be at school where we have staff members and teachers keeping a good eye on them,” Asmussen said.
