ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – With a growing number of threats of school violence, Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is launching a new team. It’ll consist of police and social workers who investigate threats and look to help the students making them.
Just over a month into the new school year, APS faced a major challenge last week, responding to several social media posts that threatened school shootings.
BCSO and APS investigations proved the threats weren’t valid, but the trend of making these threats isn’t going away.
APS Police Deputy Chief Steven Marez and Shantail Miller oversee the district’s newer “integrated support team.”
“We ensure we investigate those all the way on to the conclusion of that to see if anything is credible or not,” stated Marez.
The four-person unit focuses on not just investigating threats, but there’s more.
“Our team is tasked with digging deeper to see what’s actually going. We see social media fallouts with friends, changes at home,” said Miller.
Miller said after they become aware of a threat, the team communicates with a student’s teachers to see if the child has had any recent changes in attitude.
The intervention is meant to trickle down to kids and their parents with the ultimate goal of trying to help any problems in the future.
Along with launching the new team this year, all APS employees are now issued badges that they can press in the event of an emergency or school threat.