Overreaction, Too, Is a Threat

The massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 15 dead and 23 wounded has provoked a rash of cruel and potentially dangerous “copycat” threats. Unfortunately, that’s what usually happens after a major incident of this sort. The good news is that parents, school officials and law enforcement officers have been especially vigilant in the wake of this heinous incident, to the point that every threat is being met with intense scrutiny.

Most copycats are not serious, but that isn’t the issue. In the past, the problem was “it can’t happen here” complacency. But it certainly did happen in four U.S. schools last year, shootings that left nine dead and 30 wounded.

Communities, law enforcement and school officials should by all means:

* Take all bomb threats seriously, such as in the Anaheim case in which students suspected of sending threats over the Internet were arrested Monday.

* Suspend students accused of threatening classmates, as happened after two students in Ventura County’s Balboa Middle School, on the day after the Colorado atrocity, reportedly threatened to shoot classmates.

* Arrest students who threaten to bomb schools. Such arrests were made in Lancaster, where three Quartz Hill High School students are accused of making death threats against classmates, possessing a manual for making explosives and having a map of the school indicating where bombs could be placed.

Precautions like these are proper, but they must be weighed against overreaction, such as the recent arrest of a 12-year-old Delaware boy for making “terrorist threats” by holding his hand with two fingers extended and pretending to shoot fellow students.

In Littleton, Colo., the issue is more starkly drawn. Just what was the relationship between the two killers--Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, now dead--and other reputed members of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia? No one has been charged with a crime, but school authorities say the teenagers have been offered home-based schooling for the rest of the year. Some reportedly have taken the offer.

These and similar cases are difficult ones that call for wisdom on the part of police, courts, parents and school administrators. Decisions must be made both now and long after the television cameras and reporters have gone.