How Illinois handles school shooting threats as new academic year begins

CHICAGO - As the last school year came to a close in May, the country was shaken by yet another horrific school shooting.

This time in Uvalde, Texas, where a lone gunman killed 19 students and two teachers before police entered the building.

People across the U.S. were stunned at how this situation unfolded.

With the new school year just starting, FOX 32 Chicago is beginning a series of Special Reports — called "Students Under Fire" — which looks at how school threats are handled locally.

HOW ILLINOIS HANDLES SCHOOL SHOOTING THREATS AS NEW ACADEMIC YEAR BEGINS PT. 2

HOW ILLINOIS SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR MASS SHOOTINGS PT. 3

"At around 8 a.m., on October 27th, I will be coming in with a gun and a bomb and killing everyone inside Plainfield North High School. Be ready."

That message was left in Plainfield North High School's general voicemail last year on October 27, 2021.

The principal immediately brought it to the attention of the school resource officer and the local police department at around 6 a.m.

According to the police report, extra patrol cars were then diverted to the school and all students and staff were told to "hold in place" starting at 7:55 a.m.

Fifteen heart-stopping minutes later, the order was lifted.

"We have plenty to think about all the time and if we could just teach and not have to worry about whether or not we are going to go home at the end of the day," said Paul Adams.

Adams is a Chicago-area high school teacher and a retired campus police officer.

"It’s one of those things, we want to make sure we are in a nurturing place for our students to grow," he said.

SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 CHICAGO ON YOUTUBE

In August 2019, a new law took effect requiring all Illinois school districts to develop a threat assessment plan and to create a threat assessment team.

That’s in addition to the six safety drills schools have to do every year. At least one of them is an active shooter drill.

"It’s become more and more of a real issue," said Illinois State Rep. Fred Crespo.

Crespo sponsored Illinois’ School Threat Assessment law. He's vice chair of the state's House Education Committee on school policy.

It took effect immediately in 2019, giving school districts 30 days to put together their threat assessment teams and 90 days to develop their procedure to handle a school threat.

So, in the last three years, how many Illinois school districts have put their threat assessment plan and team in place?

"When we were asking our members if they had these plans in place, and they did not," said Kathi Griffin.

Griffin is the president of the Illinois Education Association. The IEA worked closely with legislators, like Crespo, to get Illinois’ School Threat Assessment law passed.

"Sometimes you put things in to place and you just assume people will do them," Griffin said. "What we found was our assumption was incorrect … and we needed to have them turned in."

Griffin and Crespo say there are a couple of reasons for that.

"I think after Covid, number one, we didn’t meet that much in springfield," Crespo said. "So we weren’t meeting and passing legislation."

Griffin points out students and teachers were not in the classroom, also because of Covid.

"It wasn’t until we came back at the beginning of this year (2022) that we started having conversations about the accountability," Crespo said.

On May 13 of this year, Governor JB Pritzker signed Illinois’ School Threat Assessment Compliance law, which means when this school year starts, it is mandatory for each Illinois school district to have their threat assessment plan and the names of their assessment team members on file with its regional office of education.

Even though another law has been passed that now requires school districts to close this hole, it’s still missing something.

There is no penalty if they don’t file, except maybe for this.

"If a school or school district chooses not to do that and something happens that would probably not be a very good thing because of the liability issues they could face for not having a plan in place," Griffin said.

Despite those issues, Illinois is one of the first states in the U.S. to pass a School Threat Assessment law.

Following the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, it’s making another first.

Illinois' Terrorism Task Force is now offering its first specialized training session for first responder command staff across the board.

"We’ve identified that the command and control of these active threat or active shooter situations is also another very important element," said Eric C. Arnold, Program Director for Illinois’ School Campus Safety program. "That our law enforcement leaders, right, have the appropriate level of training just like their front-line officers."

In Illinois’ first ever "Command and Control" training session, these supervisors — from police, fire and EMS — were working through active threat scenarios from start to finish together.

"We’re looking for the words that match up with violent crime … and threats that face Illinois," said Chief Intelligence Officer Aaron Kustermann.

Twenty-four/seven, since April 2003, the Illinois State Police Department's Fusion Center has been scouring the internet and social media for any and all violent threats regarding Illinois schools or other public places.

Also known as the "STIC" or Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, investigators there answer around 20,000 calls a year from local law enforcement looking for help. Only a fraction of them pertain to schools.

"Some of those questions are very real time where we’ve got minutes to answer," Kustermann said.

Remember the threat Plainfield North received last fall? Police say it was a hoax originating out of state.

After looking at all that, how prepared is Illinois to handle a situation like what happened in Uvalde? Could the same mistakes happen here?

"That’s a very good question. I think once we look at the threat assessment plans, we’ll have a better sense … in terms of are they ready to respond to something like that," Crespo said.

School Threat Assessment teams also look for struggling students at all times and try to get them help before an incident occurs.

One way to let your school know if you or someone else needs help is to use the state's new "Safe 2 Help" program where you can confidentially report concerns you have about yourself or a friend.

Coming up in our next segment on Tuesday at 9 p.m., since no one has been checking for the last three years to see if school districts actually developed a threat assessment plan or a team, FOX 32 Chicago will take a look at how some Illinois schools have been handling a threat when it does come in.