School safety expert Ron Avi Astor, a professor of social welfare at UCLA Luskin, spoke to Axios about the recent wave of false threats of violence directed at schools across the United States, which have caused numerous police responses, evacuations and temporary closures. “The goal for some of these [perpetrators] is to create anxiety and a sense of terror,” said Astor, noting that false threats can lead to copycat threats. In addition to disrupting learning, false threats through social media can lead to heightened community fears as well as time-consuming and costly government and police responses. The article cites data that education facilities are the most targeted locations for threats and that false reports were responsible for nearly 30% of school violence incidents nationally in 2023-24. False reports have included threats of shootings, bombs and a variety of other dangers. Arrests have been made in some jurisdictions while others are increasing consequences.