The start of a new school year in West Virginia has been marred by a series of threats. Although no serious incidents have occurred, more than 130 threats have been made against schools across the state.
Rob Cunningham, Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security spoke with reporter Chris Schulz about the state’s coordinated response to the threats.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Schulz: Can you, in your own words, describe the situation that we saw unfold last week in the state?
Cunningham: It’s not only last week, it’s continuing into this week. We’re continuing to have threats throughout the state come into our school systems, whether it’s telephone calls or whether it’s via social media or via email text. It’s a variety of different platforms we’re receiving these threats. So far as of this morning, we have identified 135 threats throughout 34 different counties in the state of West Virginia. There’s 62 schools that have been impacted by these threats.
Schulz: What exactly is going on here? Is there any indication that this is organized or coordinated in any fashion?
Cunningham: I wouldn’t say that. I know we’re getting some of these threats that are coming in that are very similar in nature to the same threats that are happening throughout the country. That was the main reason that we came up with this task force concept. The governor pushed us to do this. He directed us to use all our resources to make sure we address this threat. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We have this task force set up and really, the simplest way to put it is, there’s no reason for a school resource officer in Ohio County to be working on the exact same threat as a resource officer in Mingo County, and those two not know about the same threat being in both locations. There’s no use in them recreating the wheel. So when we’re getting that information in, we’re feeding it into the Fusion Center. The Fusion Center is doing the analytics on the threat, they’re deciphering whether it’s the exact same verbiage as what we’re getting in other threats. Plus, taking the next step to see where these threats were originated.
Schulz: Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that West Virginia has had to deal with a series of threats of this nature. I know that you and I spoke back in 2022 when a similar but distinct situation developed regarding swatting calls. Can you tell me a little bit about how the state’s response has developed in that time?
Cunningham: In December of 2022 and we had the swatting calls in 19 counties. That was in the infancy of our school safety officers program. Matter of fact the day that those calls came in was the first day that our director had reported to work. That school safety program has grown. We have 10 employees now spread throughout the state. They have regions, they’re gun carrying law enforcement officers, and they’re working with our established pros and SROs, our sheriff’s departments and our city police officers.
Make no mistake that these threats are of the utmost priority. They’re getting the same attention as an unsolved homicide. We are using all of our resources. We’re using the resource of the Fusion Center, which is really amazing what they can track. They can take information from an investigation and track down and narrow down to the people who are committing these crimes. Last count, I was told this morning, about 8:30 a.m. we had anywhere from nine to 10, 11 subjects who have been arrested throughout the state of West Virginia for these threats. That’s a mixture of both juveniles and adults. I don’t know whether it’s six of one, four of another, but I just know it’s a mixture of both juveniles and adults who have been arrested for these incidents.
Schulz: Can you talk to me a little bit about the distinction that you all have to make between a credible and maybe a less credible threat when it comes to this volume?
Cunningham: The volume is exactly what is really creating a hurdle for us because when you get 135 threats, you have to triage, and you have to evaluate which ones lend more credence than others. Which ones are similar to the same threats that are happening in another state? And that’s what this task force is able to do because the Fusion Center has a network all over the country, and they’re plugged in. And when we get a threat here, our Fusion Center will put it into that database that they’re sharing with other Fusion Centers, and we’re able to see, “Oh, this is the same one that came in in Arizona. They just changed the school names.”
But I don’t want you to think that these aren’t being taken seriously, because, believe me, they certainly are. This is what we do. We respond when the bands play, and that’s when we’ve got to perform. So that’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s a lot of threats, there’s a lot of ground to cover, and we’re doing the very best that we possibly can. And that’s what this task force was created for, was to be able to help us logistically, be able to address these threats.
Schulz: I certainly did not in any way want to imply that this wasn’t being taken seriously. Simply the fact that even statistics would dictate that not every single one of these threats is, although valid in a security standpoint, maybe not legitimate, if that makes sense.
Cunningham: I spoke to all 55 school superintendents last week, and I explained to them that, we don’t want to induce panic, but we want you and all of all of your admin, all your administrators, your teachers and your service personnel, to be vigilant and make sure that we don’t make the mistake of human complacency, which would open the door for someone to potentially take advantage of a situation.Historically, in any school related shootings, human complacency has been a big part of it, and that’s what I’ve stressed with them, was make sure everyone’s being vigilant.
I’ve also asked them, I said, “Please tell your students if they know something, that’s why we have that ‘See,Send’ app,” and it’s on every school-owned computer. You can download it onto your phone, but every student has access to it, and if there’s something that you know or you hear, please send it through that app. It’s you know, you can put your name on it, or it can be anonymous. But when that happens, when that information is shared through that app, the information goes exactly where it needs to go, to be dispersed out as quickly as possible. When the information comes in on that ‘See Send’ app, it goes straight down to our command center for the school safety officers, and from right there, it goes straight to whatever PRO is closest, whatever school safety officers closest, and they’re able to react very quickly.
Schulz: What is the path forward to return to normalcy? Is there a movement to try and get to the root of this issue and why this is happening at this scale right now?
Cunningham: Absolutely, there’s a movement. I left out our partnership with our federal partners, our state and federal partners, we’re all working on this. The threats that are coming in from out of state into West Virginia schools, those are the ones that we’re definitely getting with our federal partners on because they have jurisdiction to be able to reach out and hopefully apprehend the culprits in this.
Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about, a little bit more about those culprits?
Cunningham: This morning, I was told nine or 10 in the state so that didn’t encompass the out of state arrest. As far as breaking it down, I wasn’t briefed on the breakdown of which counties for which. We have some counties that have received as many as 25 of these threats, and we have some counties that have received just one of these threats. We’ve got 33 separate counties and 137 different tips that have come in.
Schulz: I do want to give you an opportunity now, if there’s anything that I haven’t given you a chance to discuss with me, or if there’s anything that we have touched on that you’d like to highlight.
Cunningham: This has been a statewide response. Our children’s safety is all of our responsibility. That’s why the governor has directed us to make sure we open up this task force and we get to the bottom of why and who is causing this chaos. We’re working with all of our state and federal partners, our school resource officers program, everyone, as the governor likes to say, we’re all pulling the rope in the same direction. The one thing that I haven’t really mentioned, that I want to kind of stress is what we need, is we need input from the public. So if you know someone is doing this, or if you if you have information about someone who’s making these false threats, please share that with us so we can put a stop to this, because at the end of the day, what’s most important is our children and their safety, and they’re not safe and not able to learn.