DES MOINES, Iowa — After multiple alleged threats made against metro Iowa schools over the past month, some districts, parents and students are left wondering what truly makes a school threat "credible?"
Law enforcement Local 5 spoke with said it determines threats made against schools "non-credible" when it has no apparent ability to be carried out, after an investigation. "Credible" threats are when officials are able to track an IP address to that online user.
Sgt. Paul Parizek, of the Des Moines Police Department, said, "When you get these threats, you treat them like they are the real deal. You treat them like they are credible until they are not. And fortunately that happens pretty quickly often, but there are times when that does take some time. It creates a lot of uneasiness for people in the schools and in the community."
Over the past couple weeks, "non-credible" threats have been made against Newton, Norwalk and Centerville school districts. The credibility of threats made against schools are extremely ambiguous, and a thing schools must of course deal with, along with law enforcement.
"If there's a kid who thinks it's a joke, we need to let him know, this isn't a joke," Parizek said. "Because it hurts people, it scares people and it does suck a lot of resources."
The state does have a reporting system to notify law enforcement of school threats: the Safe+Sound Iowa app is free to use and all submitted tips are anonymous.
EDITOR NOTE: The below video originally aired Sept. 19, 2024.