Lockdowns, threats of violence, and safety concern reports have reached double digits in Mississippi schools over the last nine days. Since the school year began, the number is far higher and threatens to far outpace totals from previous years.
Mississippi Department of Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell and Colonel Keith Davis of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Division say the recent influx follows the school shooting that left four dead in Georgia in early September. 94 calls have been made by Mississippi schools requesting law enforcement assistance due to a threat since the 2024-25 school year began, compared to 66 total in the previous academic calendar.
“I do think you can look at some of these incidents and quickly understand that a lot of the time a lot of this stuff is people dealing with depression, and then there’s somewhere someone just doesn’t want to take a test,” Davis said during an interview on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “It’s unbelievable to cause that much disruption in the learning environment.
DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell says his agency has evolved over the last several years to be better prepared for school threats, such as charging and equipping the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security to direct threat assessments. DPS has also emphasized improving the coordinating threat responses for educational facilities. Tindell stressed the strain so many threats can have on state and local law enforcement agencies, often preventing quality responses.
“A lot of them end up being phony calls. It shuts down the school system and it pulls law enforcement away from other needed things that they need to be doing – whether that’s investigating crimes or responding to other calls,” Tindell said, noting the responses are serious and swift because the average school shooting lasts three minutes or less.
“And sometimes it’s just kids being kids. Bomb threats have been going on for generations,” Tindell continued. “But I think one of the things that’s different about today is how law enforcement responds to this. It’s a serious response and one in which pulls a lot of folks together and literally shuts down the schools.”
Due to the increase in school violence, Tindell is pushing Mississippi lawmakers to address the issue at the governmental level. Specifically, he explained, placing a school resource officer in every facility would be a big step forward to ensure the safety of students in the Magnolia State. School resource officers are typically uniformed and armed law enforcement agents.
“We need to find ways to fund it and tie it into local law enforcement,” Tindell said he would like the legislators to take another look at the Guardian Act, which involves provisions that would arm and train teachers for threatening circumstances. “I still think that’s something we need to explore is training teachers how to respond in those situations.”
Tindell also pointed to other approaches such as in DeSoto County, where the sheriff’s office places deputies in each educational facility in their district. The difference in local approaches also requires cleaning up coordination between law enforcement responses. But, for both Tindell and Davis, the most tangible change will come when the issue is addressed at home.
“What I would say to parents is, know what your kids are doing,” Col. Davis said. “Pay attention to their time on the internet and what they’re doing on the internet.”
“To the extent we find individuals that are doing that, there’s going to be accountability,” Tindell said. “Their parents need to know there’s going to be accountability for everyone when that happens.”
