Ashland professor reviews increase in school-based bomb threats

Over the past 18 months, Dr. Amy Klinger has gathered research that shows an alarming rate of growth in the number of school-based bomb threats.

Klinger, an associate professor of educational administration at Ashland University and head of the Educator’s School Safety Network, said that these incidents have gradually increased since the 2012-13 school year but has spiked alarmingly in 2015-16.

With statistics still being gathered for this period, U.S. schools have already recorded 745 bomb threats. Though the data is gathered for the United States, the trend shows a global phenomenon. Klinger says bomb threats are a daily occurrence for schools, and that it is “critical to move from mere speculation on this issue to actual facts and data.”

Klinger says most schools are working with outdated protocol and a lack of education-based training on how to handle a bomb threat, and that this needs to be updated because a detonation is imminent. The data she is gathering in her research shows an increase in not only frequency but also severity, scope and nature of bomb threat incidents.

Her goal is to provide education and law enforcement communities with updated information and to provide everyone with a list of warning signs and appropriate ways to handle a situation.