When a broad group of parents, educators and activists met in late October at a government office building in Arlington, Virginia, they gathered around a shared goal: Make America鈥檚 schools safer. 

There, three parents whose children were killed in mass school shootings sought to bolster student mental health and crisis intervention services. Some advocates favored increased school policing and physical security while others sought to limit how those hardening measures can harm children鈥檚 civil rights. Each was there as a check on recommendations being made by the federal government.

But membership on the 26-person committee, which was created through the 鈥� passed in the wake of mass shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket 鈥� was short-lived. On Monday, the first day of President Donald Trump鈥檚 second term, all members were terminated. For members of the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse External Advisory Board, the October gathering was the group鈥檚 first time meeting 鈥� and also its last. 

A letter signed by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman and obtained by 蜜桃影视 said the decision was part of a wider effort to ensure the agency鈥檚 鈥渁ctivities prioritize our national security.鈥� 

鈥淔uture committee activities will be focused on advancing our critical mission to protect the homeland and support DHS鈥檚 strategic priorities,鈥� Huffman wrote in the letter. 鈥淭o outgoing advisory board members, you are welcome to reapply, thank you for your service.鈥�

In an email to 蜜桃影视, a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security said the agency 鈥渨ill no longer tolerate any advisory committee which push[es] agendas that attempt to undermine its national security mission, the President鈥檚 agenda or Constitutional rights of Americans.鈥� The official did not elaborate on how the committees may be undermining the new administration’s mission. But Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the president鈥檚 pick for homeland security secretary, have made clear their priorities for DHS are and to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which steers the school safety clearinghouse. 

In fact, DHS this week to eliminate what it deemed as 鈥渢he misuse of resources,鈥� including those focused on emergency preparedness and cybersecurity. The move comes as schools and nationwide face .

But school safety committee members who spoke with 蜜桃影视 said the group included experts from diverse perspectives 鈥� all focused on ensuring the effectiveness of a federal school safety initiative created during Trump鈥檚 first term. While the advisory board was created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a sweeping $1.4 billion law that includes stricter gun control measures and violence prevention programs, its purpose was to provide expertise and best practices to the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is an interagency effort the to improve national school safety efforts. It includes the creation of SchoolSafety.gov, a 鈥渙ne-stop shop鈥� of resources for school leaders looking to foster safer campuses. 

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, accused the Trump administration of violating the law, stating during a Jan. 26 news conference that the president “should not bow down to the NRA.”

In a press release the following day, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, similarly criticized the move.

“President Trump doesn’t care about keeping our kids safe from gun violence,” Murphy said. “President Trump should reinstate these members immediately and stop playing politics with our children’s safety.”

Among those who advocated for the committee鈥檚 creation 鈥� and were ultimately dismissed from it last week 鈥� are airline pilot Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed in 2018 during the mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Montalto is now president of the nonprofit which was created by the parents of the Florida shooting to advance bipartisan campus security efforts. 

In an interview with 蜜桃影视 on Wednesday, Montalto said he is 鈥渄isappointed that the members have been dismissed,鈥� and hopes to serve again on the board, which is congressionally mandated. 

鈥淭oo often the government gets involved in 鈥榞overnment speak鈥�, and we wanted to bring this external advisory board to life so that real people from outside of government could come together and have input into the process of keeping students and teachers safe at school,鈥� Montalto said. He said the board members, which were appointed during the Biden administration, represented a 鈥渂road cross-section鈥� of experts and opinions with a shared interest in student and teacher safety. 

School shootings in the U.S. have surged to record highs in the last several years, including an Wednesday that led to the deaths of two students, including the alleged gunman. The video streaming platform Kick acknowledged Wednesday evening the shooter had .

Chad Marlow, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union who served on the advisory board until this week, said the varied and wide-ranging viewpoints among members stood out most during their first meeting in October. 

鈥淭here was really an effort to get as many perspectives as possible into the room, and I don鈥檛 think there was any preconceived notion on where we were going,鈥� Marlow said. 鈥淲e were not given any instructions, like 鈥榃e would like to see you do X.鈥欌�� 

During the day-long session, he said, committee members were divided into three groups to discuss improvements to federal school safety grants and to analyze various security interventions like school-based policing. 

Marlow said it鈥檚 possible that the Trump administration could appoint new board members who are not in lockstep but fears the shakeup could eliminate experts whose viewpoints don鈥檛 align with those of the Trump administration and 鈥渉andcuff the quality鈥� of the group鈥檚 work. 

鈥淚 hope it鈥檚 not the latter because, at the end of the day, we should be focused on doing the best for keeping our kids safe 鈥� or, in the language they鈥檙e using, protecting the homeland,鈥� Marlow said. 

Still, Marlow said he plans to reapply for his seat. So, too, does Montalto, who said the Clearinghouse first created by Trump is 鈥渁ctually one of the most efficient programs in the government鈥� with four agencies coming together to provide resources designed to keep students safe. 

Important, too, are the voices of parents who鈥檝e experienced tragedy firsthand. 

鈥淎nybody who has suffered that loss can drive home the point of how important school safety is,鈥� Montalto said. 鈥淚t’s a nonpartisan issue, we just need to come together as an American family and try to make a difference.鈥�

The student population has not only , but the district saw an unprecedented influx of English learners. 

鈥淚t’s a huge testament to the work being done in Tulsa,鈥� he said at a state board meeting. 鈥淚 think that you’re seeing parents that have confidence in what’s being done there.鈥�

But now he wants parents in Tulsa and other districts throughout the state to share their citizenship status when they enroll their children 鈥� a proposal that not only violates but is likely to keep some parents from sending their children to school. 

Districts say they don鈥檛 know how many undocumented students they have, but In Tulsa, the population of English learners grew from 10,168 in 2023 to 11,149 last year. 

President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 are celebrating Walters鈥� effort to end 鈥渟anctuary schools,鈥� but district leaders say the plan is traumatizing vulnerable families.

鈥淚t’s hurtful, and it’s going to create fear,鈥� said Nick Migliorino, superintendent of the Norman Public Schools, south of Oklahoma City. 鈥淣ot educating kids because of the status of their parents helps nobody.鈥� 

The Oklahoma State Department of Education says the is needed to determine how many tutors and teachers districts need for English learners. But it comes as many national Republicans are eager to challenge a longstanding Supreme Court ruling, , which  guarantees undocumented students an education in the U.S. 

鈥淚t’s reasonable to presume that this is an attack on Plyler,鈥� said Julie Sugarman, associate director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration at the Migration Policy Institute. 鈥淚f the Supreme Court was to say, 鈥榃ell, we changed our mind 鈥� you actually can ask about immigration status,鈥� that would really put all of Plyler into question.鈥� 

The public has until Jan. 17 to submit comments on the rule. The state Board of Education will hold a public hearing the same day. 

The plan follows an election in which President-elect Donald Trump referred to the U.S. as a for undocumented immigrants. He has called for on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at schools on the day he takes office and said he would 鈥� even if their children were born in the U.S.

Walters foreshadowed the new rule in July when he asked districts to account for the 鈥渃ost and burden鈥� of illegal immigration. And on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Deputy Director Peter Flores for $474 million, saying their 鈥渇ailed border policies鈥� have placed 鈥渟evere financial and operational strain鈥� on Oklahoma鈥檚 schools. He a bill for the same figure in October. 

The state, which has an under 16, will need an additional 1,065 teachers for English learners over the next five years, he wrote in his letter to Harris. He offered no specifics on where he got that figure. 

鈥淲e cannot effectively budget or allocate critical resources when we have no accounting of the cost that illegal immigration places on our schools,鈥� the letter said.

shows that the percentage of English learners in the state, about 10%, hasn鈥檛 increased since the 2021-22 school year. But teachers in Tulsa have definitely noticed the influx of newcomers. 

鈥淪ome of them just show up on Monday and they don’t speak any English,鈥� said one teacher in the district who did not want to be named in order to protect students. She often communicates with students through bilingual staff members. 鈥淚 just hear the saddest stories every day. The kids are really sweet, but they’re afraid.鈥�  

She worries about what might happen if recent immigrants are unable to attend school. 

鈥淲e provide coats,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e provide groceries on the weekends.”

鈥榃ill not comply鈥�

Norman, where about 8% of students are English learners, was among the many districts that didn鈥檛 submit any data to the state last summer. Regardless of their needs, Migliorino said, 鈥渆ducators invest in the students who show up in our district.鈥�

Leaders of other districts, including the , and the , pushed back on Walters鈥� demands, saying they haven鈥檛  asked about families鈥� immigration status and don鈥檛 intend to start. 

Bixby Superintendent told 蜜桃影视 the proposed rule was 鈥渃learly unconstitutional.鈥� 

鈥淏ixby will not comply,鈥� said Miller, an outspoken critic of Walters who is suing him for .

He compared Walters鈥� plan to the state鈥檚 legal battle over a first-in-the-nation religious charter school. While the Oklahoma Supreme Court said the Catholic charter violates the law, the school and the state鈥檚 charter board have appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has not yet decided whether to hear the case. 

鈥淚 believe they are trying to create a case for the Trump Supreme Court,鈥� he said.

In , a Texas school district sought to charge tuition to students not 鈥渓egally admitted鈥� to the country. The U.S. Department of Education has long interpreted the court鈥檚 opinion to mean that states 鈥渃annot do anything to chill the atmosphere or to make people feel afraid to send their kids to school,鈥� Sugarman said. 

Oklahoma isn鈥檛 the first state to attempt to curb illegal immigration鈥檚 impact on schools. In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants access to public education and other services. The measure directed teachers to report students they suspected were undocumented to authorities. But advocates and federal courts found it .

Since then, , Arizona, Maryland and Texas have sought to ask parents about their citizenship, all for the stated purpose of determining how much it costs to serve unauthorized students. Only Alabama鈥檚 law was enacted, but a federal appeals court in 2012, after only a year. 

The issue could prove appealing for the Supreme Court, which took a sharp right turn during President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 first term. That ideological shift resulted in the end of and the reversal of that gave federal agencies significant leeway to interpret the law. 

鈥淲e have a different court now,鈥� said Sugarman of the Migration Policy Institute. 鈥淭he court鈥檚 willingness to overturn legal precedent means that lots of things are on the table that we wouldn鈥檛 previously [have] thought were in play.鈥�

Attorney general agreement

The education department has until March to submit the rule to the legislature, where both the House and Senate must approve the measure for it to pass. If they don鈥檛 take action, the package automatically goes to the governor to sign.聽

Walters, who frequently clashes with Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on issues like religion in public schools and education funding, has found common cause with his frequent opponent on the issue of seeking parents鈥� citizenship status. 

鈥淭he Attorney General has said he believes Oklahoma has the right to collect citizenship data in connection with government services,鈥� said spokesman Phil Bacharach.

In a , Drummond, who announced his Monday, spoke about efforts to cooperate with the incoming Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants who are committing crimes in the state. But he didn鈥檛 address education.

As 鈥減rotected areas or sensitive locations,鈥� schools have been off limits for ICE agents at least . Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said she wasn鈥檛 aware of any past ICE raids at U.S. schools. But that enrollment of Hispanic students in school drops, especially in the elementary grades, when ICE and local law enforcement partner to enforce immigration laws. Following a raid at a Tennessee meatpacking plant in 2019, in the local district were absent.聽

For now, some districts have tried to reassure parents who might be hesitant to enroll their children or send them to school. Oklahoma City Superintendent Jamie Polk issued a statement saying the district鈥檚 schools 鈥渁re a safe and welcoming place for all students, and our mission remains unchanged.鈥�

But the state鈥檚 recommended rule is especially controversial in Tulsa, where conservative Board Member E鈥橪ena Ashley told a Republican group that many English learners are undocumented and could pose a safety risk to other students.

Superintendent Ebony Johnson has tried to put families at ease, saying that rulemaking is a long, drawn-out process.

鈥淭here is a place for you and your children here,鈥� Johnson said in a . 鈥淲e want students here at school every day.鈥�  

Time and again, gunmen have before opening fire in schools, including fascinations with violence and a history of trauma. As cryptic 鈥� and at times explicit 鈥� social media posts emerge post-attacks, conversations often center on missed opportunities to intervene. It takes a vigilant community, Mayorkas said, to break the cycle. 

鈥淲e’re seeing individuals potentially with mental health problems, grievances, and they have manifested their challenges outwardly, they have spoken about violence,鈥� he told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e seen is expressions of an interest in violence and an expression of a planning or plotting to conduct an attack. And we need to educate people on identifying those signs, those expressions and also what to do about it to seek help for those individuals.鈥�

Amid a surge in mass school shootings, districts nationwide have pumped more than $3 billion into school security. Campus police have become commonplace, active-shooter drills have grown routine and, for students across the U.S., digital surveillance has been normalized. The Department of Homeland Security has endorsed 鈥渢hreat assessment,鈥� a process where educators, mental health professionals and the police analyze a student鈥檚 behaviors and statements to determine if they, as Mayorkas put it, are 鈥渄escending down a path towards violence.鈥�

The environment has created a balancing act for school leaders who are charged with keeping schools safe while protecting students鈥� civil liberties. 

The department recently invited 蜜桃影视 to interview Mayorkas about this complicated landscape ahead of its first-ever National Summit on K-12 School Safety and Security. Mayorkas fielded questions about the sharp uptick in mass school shootings, the botched police response in Uvalde, Texas, and a massive ransomware attack that targeted the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

We’re seeing an uptick in active mass shootings, including those that are targeting schools. What are some of the trends that you’re seeing within these campus attacks and what are some of the key strategies that your agency and other federal agencies are using to combat this increase in violence? 

So, Mark, tragically 2022 saw the greatest number of school shootings in our nation’s history. I think it was just over 250. And we have a multifaceted approach to it, of course, to educate and empower schools to understand how they can be safe environments. 

Every child, every person in this country and frankly around the world, deserves a safe, secure, supportive environment in which to be educated. And so we have our Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA as it is known, that has a website that is dedicated to this critical mission set. 

We have the United States Secret Service鈥檚鈥� , the NTAC, that provides resources to schools about how they can maintain a safe environment. We have critical grant programs that fund innovative efforts to really build resilience, and to help prevention models, as well as our , CP3, which is developing a one-stop shop that identifies federal resources for schools to access.

We have a lot of different efforts underway throughout our department and throughout the administration.

Absolutely. So let’s jump into the threat assessment one. You mentioned the Secret Service. They’ve done this study basically finding that mass school shooters almost always have observable traits before the attack. And it’s basically a 鈥淪ee Something, Say Something鈥� kind of mantra. Can you talk a little bit about threat assessments, and identifying people who might present a serious risk, but doing so in a way that doesn’t trample on people’s civil rights?

That’s right. So it’s very important, Mark, the last part of your question. We have a statutorily created and a statutorily created . It’s very important that we keep those fundamental rights well protected and do not in any way infringe upon them. 

Indeed, if we take a look at recent events, the assailants in Uvalde, Texas, in Buffalo 鈥� and Highland Park, these individuals exhibited signs that were observable to individuals around them. And the key is to empower people to educate people about how to identify those characteristics when somebody’s descending down a path that has a connectivity to violence, and really intervene. And to intervene not in a way that delivers accountability, but rather assistance, support. 

We’re seeing individuals potentially with mental health problems, grievances, and they have manifested their challenges outwardly, they have spoken about violence. More generally what we’ve seen is expressions of an interest in violence and an expression of a planning or plotting to conduct an attack. And we need to educate people on identifying those signs, those expressions and also what to do about it to seek help for those individuals.

You mentioned Uvalde and I’m really curious on your thoughts about the law enforcement response to the tragedy. More than 350 officers from local, state and federal agencies descended on the school. And ultimately, officers under your watch were the ones who were able to stop the gunman. But I’m curious about the delay. It took more than an hour for law enforcement officers to ultimately confront the gunman. I’m curious if you have any insight into the factors that led to that delay, and what lessons educators, law enforcement officials and anybody in the security space can take from that police response?

I think there are going to be a lot of lessons learned from the response in Uvalde. That response has been the subject of a number of investigations and some of those investigations are, in fact, ongoing. So I think I’m going to refrain from commenting upon the reported delays in the response. 

That was an unspeakable tragedy and I think there are different responses in different situations. There is a great body of training and active shooter training and how law enforcement should respond. I think the critical part is to take a look at every incident 鈥� unfortunately they occur all too often 鈥� and to learn from them to refine those best practices, to make sure that we’re disseminating those best practices throughout the law enforcement community. And not just the law enforcement community, but the health care community and the like. 

One of the things that we鈥檝e focused on in this administration is an all-of-government and all-of-community response to this threat. So we are engaged with the Department of Education, we’re engaged with the Department of Health and Human Services, we’re looking at local community groups, parent associations, school systems, local health, mental health networks and providers. This really requires an all-of-community response to the fact that individuals are expressing their infirmities, their challenges, through acts of violence and through acts of violence targeted at children.

One of the interesting things about the response to the shooting has been a lot of concern about law enforcement officers in schools. The federal government has put a lot of money over the last several decades into putting police officers in schools. I鈥檓 curious what your response is to advocates who鈥檝e been calling for police-free schools? 

This is a very difficult issue and it’s an issue that we do encounter not only in the school system but also in other contexts as well. This is a conversation I’ve had with faith leaders about how to make places of congregation, of learning, of worship, welcoming, open and the like, and also safe and secure, to not be foreboding. 

I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all. I think we have to take a look at the safety imperative. I am not opposed to having security guards in schools, I myself. But how they are deployed, how they are integrated into the fabric of the school community, I think is vitally important. 

We’re going to talk a little bit about cybersecurity and dark corners of the internet. In Uvalde the school district used a company called Social Sentinel, basically to monitor social media and try to identify potentially threatening social media posts. School districts across the country use a large range of different surveillance tools to basically monitor how kids interact on the internet and to try to identify violence before it happens. But the White House recently came out with what they’re calling a Bill of Rights for AI, and it basically says to schools, 鈥榣imit the continuous surveillance of students if it has a potential to infringe on their civil rights.鈥� I’m curious on your thoughts on this idea of monitoring students鈥� behaviors on social media and other internet platforms to identify threats of violence?

The key is to create with one’s children an open line of communication so that one can learn what type of online activity one’s child is engaging in. So an open, communicative environment is absolutely critical, as is digital literacy so children can understand what is credible and what is not credible. 

We can employ privacy settings 鈥� parents, not the government 鈥� the parents can employ privacy settings and understand what their children are doing and communicate about it. It’s really important that children who are online are educated with respect to their own behavior and the behavior of others. I think that is what is key, that open, communicative environment, an environment of digital literacy and an environment where if children see something, they understand what it is they are seeing and know how to respond to it. And also, for parents, friends, relatives, school teachers and the like to pick up on the signs when a child is descending down a path towards violence.

If we’re talking to parents here for a second, what do you think are some of the most critical signs that folks should be looking out for?

It gets very difficult and I would really defer to mental health professionals and the like but let me give you a few examples. If we are dealing with an individual who expresses an intent to commit violence, who expresses a fascination with violence and begins to withdraw from societal communications with friends and the like, I think it is time to communicate, to ask questions, to engage with that child to learn more.

Many communities in the last few months haven’t even experienced shootings 鈥� but have been told that they are. A bunch of schools across the country in the last few months are being subjected to swatting calls.

Swatting is a very dangerous phenomenon that we’re seeing an increase of. That prank call to emergency personnel to deploy when, in fact, they’re not needed. That’s a criminal activity and it really puts innocent people at risk.

I’m curious when you can tell us about the surge right now. It appears that many of these are connected. Can you give us any insight into what’s going on and why schools are suddenly experiencing a surge in these kinds of calls?

One of the things that’s of concern when it comes to swatting, and it鈥檚 also applicable to malicious cyber activity, is the ease of replication. That if a swatting incident occurs in one geography, others may be motivated, unfortunately, to do the very same thing in a very different venue. We seek to prevent it. We work with the state, local, tribal territorial partners, campus law enforcement, to educate students, to educate people about the danger of swatting. It’s not an innocent prank call. It’s the deployment of precious law enforcement resources and could have unintended consequences. Education and prevention are key here.

Speaking of cybersecurity, the Los Angeles school district, America’s second-largest school district, was just the victim of a ransomware attack. They ultimately did not pay the ransom and as a result had some of their data posted on the dark web. I’m curious what you can tell us about the threat actors who we’re holding LAUSD ransom and in general the threat actors who are targeting schools?

We’ve seen a tremendous rise in ransomware over the last several years by criminal actors. They target not only schools, they target hospitals, law enforcement organizations, businesses, the range of victims is quite wide. We caution, we recommend that victim entities not pay the ransom. We are very well aware of the precarious situation in which they find themselves when they’re held hostage to a ransomware actor. But we have only increased our defenses, really only enhanced our defenses, and also strengthened law enforcement鈥檚 response to it.

Now, if I’m a school leader and I’m the victim of a ransomware attack or some sort of cyber threat, what kind of assistance can I receive from the federal government? What role do you play in helping school districts respond to this?

Our Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, is very well equipped to assist a ransomware victim as is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service. We have a whole suite of capable agencies that can assist in identifying the intrusion, assisting in expelling the intruder, helping in patching the vulnerability that the intruder exploited and, of course, holding hopefully the intruder accountable. And the FBI has done an extraordinary job in investigating and identifying bad actors.

A recent Pew poll found that about a third of parents are very or extremely worried about a school shooting occurring at their child’s school. You’re a parent. I’m curious, have you had these similar concerns from a parental perspective? And to what degree do you think that parents should be concerned about a shooting unfolding at their school?

It’s a tragic state of affairs when parents are concerned about sending their children to school because of a potential attack that impairs the safety and security of their children. 

It is important for schools to train their personnel and their students on how to respond in the case of an active shooter. When I was a child in Los Angeles, California, where I spent much of my youth, we were trained on responding to fires, to earthquakes, even to a bomb. School shooting was not in the panoply of threats to which we were trained to respond. Now, tragically, it is, and schools need to train and parents need to communicate in an informed way with their children 鈥� not in a way to create hysteria 鈥� but in a way to create vigilance and alertness.

Online platforms like forums have been used over the last several years to radicalize young people, whether that be to become mass school shooters, or to go down a path of white nationalism. I’m curious if you can elaborate a little bit on the landscape of these online forums and ways that we can combat that without stepping on the First Amendment? 

So the threats, the diversity of the threats is much broader than what you identified, of course. And this is where I spoke earlier about the need to communicate with children, with youth, who are impressionable, to be able to create a safe environment where they feel comfortable communicating with what they’re seeing. For parents to be vigilant in terms of privacy settings, to really develop digital literacy amongst our youth so that they can understand what is credible, what is not credible, what is threatening, and what is innocent.

We really have to do that, and we’re working in partnership with industry, with the private sector, with think tanks about how to best build that digital literacy. This also requires an all-of-community response, it is not for the government exclusively to engage in this. 

We are working with online gaming companies to really build a safe environment to really instruct children about the perils of the online environment, to really guard against cyberbullying as well as extremism that seeks to draw people to violence.

What is it about the gaming community? It’s interesting that you’re specifically reaching out to people in that space. Why? 

Well, we’re reaching out much more broadly. We engage with social media companies, we engage with thought leaders that are important voices. The gaming community reaches so many children, they鈥檙e a critical partner in developing a safe and secure ecosystem so people can understand the benefits of, as well as the perils of, the online environment. 

Our increased connectivity is a tremendous tool for achieving prosperity. It also brings risks to it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to field these questions and talk about this really important topic. Is there anything else that I haven’t asked, that you think is important? 

I want to return to a point of sadness and a point of vigilance. The point of sadness is, of course, we’re speaking about school safety and the fact that it is such a phenomenon right now. 

On the other hand, the community 鈥� and the federal government is a member of that community, but the community is much broader 鈥� is very, very alert to this phenomenon, and very vigilant in addressing it in a really productive and constructive way.

That鈥檚 the message that federal law enforcement officials touted Tuesday during a first-ever hosted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. While a demographic profile of school shooters doesn鈥檛 exist, according to , soon-to-be gunmen exhibit signs that can be identified prior to attacks 鈥� such as a fixation on violence or a history of depression. 

Officials endorsed 鈥渢hreat assessment,鈥� an approach pioneered by the Secret Service that鈥檚 become a common but controversial strategy in schools to predict future perpetrators and prevent targeted campus violence. The Secret Service is part of Homeland Security.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the tragedies that have happened when that information, on behavior that objectively elicits concern, was not acted on,鈥� said Lina Alathari, chief of the . 鈥淏ut we also need to make sure we鈥檙e setting a lower threshold for what we want to intervene with 鈥� such as being bullied, depression, suicidality 鈥� because we鈥檝e also seen those in the background of these students that resorted to violence.鈥�

Following the mass school shooting in May at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, districts statewide are set to receive for campus security, including for the creation of threat assessment teams. 

Yet the deployment of such teams, which generally include school administrators, mental health officials and police officers, has civil rights groups on edge. Critics warn the approach could misidentify struggling students as future gunmen and unnecessarily push them into the juvenile justice system. While school shootings remain statistically rare, student behaviors that are factors in threat assessments 鈥� like alcohol use and a history of mental health issues 鈥� are exceedingly common.

Such concerns were largely downplayed at this week鈥檚 summit, a three-day virtual event where law enforcement officials, educators and other experts gathered to offer recommendations in responding to a range of campus security risks, including mass school shootings, cyber attacks and online extremism. 

Steven Driscoll, the threat assessment center鈥檚 assistant chief, stressed that the approach is not 鈥渂ased on profiles or identifying types of students鈥� but rather a focus on identifying threatening behaviors and intervening early. 

鈥淪chools need training not only on the behavioral threat assessment process best practices but also on things like implicit biases which have historically permeated a variety of school-based programs,鈥� Driscoll said. 

In a letter to the Education Department last year, a coalition of 50 student civil rights groups warned that the adoption of threat assessment in schools is 鈥渓ikely pushing many children of color and children with disabilities out of school, into the school-to-prison pipeline.鈥� 

鈥淭hese 鈥榯hreat assessments鈥� are likely to target large numbers of children who aren鈥檛 actual threats 鈥� including disproportionate numbers of children of color and children with disabilities 鈥� and cause them significant and lasting harm, while doing little or nothing to increase safety in schools,鈥� according to the letter, which was signed by groups including the National Center for Youth Law, the National Disability Rights Network and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. 鈥淚n addition, they may refer children to services that do not exist.鈥�

Last year, a analyzed 67 school violence plots that were thwarted between 2006 and 2018, finding that plotters in each case were met with criminal charges or arrests. Yet the 鈥減rimary objective鈥� of threat assessments is not to administer discipline, the report notes, but to 鈥渋dentify students in crisis or distress and provide robust interventions, before their behavior escalates to the point of criminality.鈥� 

Amy Lowder, the director of student safety and well-being at a suburban Charlotte, North Carolina school district, acknowledged during the summit that threat assessments conducted improperly can have detrimental effects on youth, including unnecessary student expulsions and juvenile justice referrals. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important, she said, for threat assessment teams to take 鈥渁 whole-child approach in gathering the necessary information鈥� about students causing concerns. 

Meanwhile, Greg Johnson, a high school principal from West Liberty, Ohio, said that school leaders must balance students鈥� civil rights against their need to ensure campuses are secure. Johnson was principal of West Liberty High School in 2017 when a classmate. 

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got that balance because you want to support student rights and individual rights but you also want to keep people safe and that鈥檚 a huge responsibility,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge responsibility to keep your students safe.鈥� 

In an interview with 蜜桃影视 that opened the summit, Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas noted that there have been more than , more than any other year on record. 

Given the reality that school shooters often leak their plans to friends or online, summit panelists also endorsed a need to monitor students on the internet 鈥� a practice that has raised a separate set of civil rights and digital privacy concerns. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for districts to employ experts in digital analyses, said Colton Easton, the project and training manager at Safer Schools Together, a Canadian-based, for-profit company that offers threat-assessment training and a team of threat analysts to assist districts in investigations. 

鈥淢aybe a student made a threat involving a gun and we see that gun posted on TikTok, we would consider that behaviors consistent with the threat and law enforcement could obtain a search warrant and remove access to the means,鈥� Easton said. 鈥淭oday, digital leakage is that golden ticket for school safety and threat assessment teams.鈥�

A Texas House committee released a 77-page Sunday on the Uvalde school shooting, concluding that allowed an 18-year-old gunman to enter Robb Elementary School May 24 and kill 19 children and two teachers. The report, described as the most exhaustive account of the tragedy, cited a disorganized, chaotic law enforcement response crippled by an across-the-board leadership failure, multiple missed warning signs about the shooter’s propensity for deadly violence and a lax atmosphere toward security at the school that had developed over time.

Shortly after Texas news outlets published raw footage of the recent mass school shooting in Uvalde 鈥� and of police officers鈥� gut-wrenching delay in taking out the gunman 鈥� shady corners of the internet became a haven for new conspiracy theories. 

On 4Chan, the fringe chat board that鈥檚 notorious for hosting extremist content, users insisted the 82 minutes of school surveillance camera footage of the May 24 shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers, was staged. Rather than depicting one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history, forum users claimed the heavily armed officers seen milling about were either 鈥渃risis actors鈥� or simply participants in a harmless training exercise.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see anyone get shot,鈥� one user commented.

鈥淪aw a lot of police standing around during a live shooter training exercise though,” another said.

The footage jointly released by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper and KVUE TV briefly features the 18-year-old suspect as he walks unimpeded into the school and the piercing sounds of gunfire, but is mostly focused on police standing back in the brightly painted hallway. The news outlets chose to edit out the children鈥檚 screams and nobody is shown getting shot on frame, details that quickly became fodder for conspiracy theorists, including one who dubbed it propaganda promoting 鈥淒EMOCRAP GUNGRABBING.鈥�

Ever since news outlets released the footage this week inside Robb Elementary School, the small community west of San Antonio has endured a new round of trauma and turbulence. Anger once again focused on the failed police response, as the footage showed how officers with rifles and protective shields idled for more than an hour before confronting the killer, one casually sanitizing his hands from a wall dispenser.

 Yet for many, the publication itself became the focus of fury. 

While some experts saw the images as critical to holding police accountable, some Texas officials criticized the news outlets for their decision. Uvalde residents, particularly the victims鈥� families, said releasing the video publicly, before they were scheduled to see it privately first, was re-traumatizing. 

鈥淲ho in the hell do these people think they are?鈥� Angel Garza, whose daughter Amerie was killed, said on CNN. 鈥淵ou want to go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world. What makes you think that鈥檚 OK? The least you can do is have some freaking decency for us.鈥� 

Meanwhile, researchers who study school shootings and online extremism warned the footage would likely have intense preoccupation in fringe online communities, including those that advocate real-world violence. The video鈥檚 release has opened a debate about whether it serves any utility for the general public and has left some experts concerned that the footage could become useful for someone planning the next fatal attack. 

The Uvalde shooting 鈥渨ill have tremendous fascination for a certain segment of the population,鈥� said psychologist Peter Langman, who has spent decades . Time and again, his research has shown, perpetrators study and emulate the behaviors and tactics of previous gunmen. 

In , the Department of Homeland Security warned that online forums dedicated to the glorification of domestic extremist violence have been flooded with posts urging copycat attacks in the wake of Uvalde. Six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. since 2018 , and federal law enforcement officials have warned that fringe online forums are being leveraged to radicalize young, violent extremists. Some have seized on the attack 鈥渢o spread disinformation and incite grievances, including claims it was a government-staged event meant to advance gun control measures,鈥� the threat bulletin warned. 

Violent videos are often presented online as memes or jokes and aren鈥檛 inherently harmful, said Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor of public communication at American University and a faculty fellow with the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab. But such jokes, he said, can serve to radicalize. 

鈥淜ids and young people, they have a technological capacity that people who are older never had,鈥� he told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淭he problem is that they don鈥檛 have the media literacy skills to distinguish what鈥檚 a joke and what鈥檚 a call to action.鈥�

A compulsive interest with mass shootings in fringe online communities traces back to the 1999 Columbine High School attack in suburban Denver, which has been repeatedly cited by the shooters in subsequent attacks. In online communities, so-called 鈥淐olumbiners鈥� mull over every detail of the infamous shooting, sharing a vast photo and video archive of the high school gunmen. That includes haunting surveillance video footage from inside the school cafeteria. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a whole phenomenon of Columbiners, people who are obsessed with every aspect of Columbine and track down every photo they can find of the perpetrators and post them on websites,鈥� said Langman. Because so many people were killed in Uvalde, he said a similar warped pursuit could emerge with the Texas massacre. Intellectual curiosity has driven some people to become obsessed with Columbine and subsequent attacks, Langman said, and others have developed romantic infatuations with the perpetrators. Meanwhile, he said a segment of the community is motivated by the desire for violence. 

 鈥淢ost of the people fascinated with these attacks are not aspiring killers but some of them are likely to be eventual killers and that鈥檚 where the potential danger is.鈥� 

鈥楾oo graphic鈥�

Surveillance video footage depicting the mayhem inside a school during a shooting is rarely released publicly. Beyond footage of the Columbine cafeteria, a limited selection of videos were made public after the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. But none were as extensive as the footage released in Uvalde, experts said. 

The video was published Tuesday by the Texas news outlets nearly a week before state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican leading a legislative investigation into the shooting, had planned to show the video to victims鈥� families in a private screening before releasing it publicly alongside the probe鈥檚 preliminary findings. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Burrows said he is 鈥済lad that a small portion is now available for the public,鈥� which deserves to see police officers鈥� response to the shooting, but expressed disappointment that victims鈥� families were unable to see it first. Meanwhile, efforts to withhold certain images and audio of the violence, he said, 鈥渨ere not achieved.鈥�

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin , calling the media outlets鈥� decision to publish the video 鈥渙ne of the most chicken things I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥� 

In , the Austin newspaper explained that its decision came after 鈥渓ong and thoughtful discussions,鈥� and was done to provide clarity about what happened inside the school after weeks of confusion and repeated misinformation. The newspaper blurred the face of a student who appears momentarily at the beginning of the video and omitted the sounds of children screaming as the gunman entered their fourth grade classroom, a detail they deemed 鈥渢oo graphic.鈥� Editors ultimately chose, however, to show the face of the gunman as he entered the school undeterred.

鈥淥ur news organization guidelines state that we should not glorify these individuals and give them the notoriety that they seek,鈥� the paper said in the op-ed. 鈥淲e chose, in this instance, to show his face to chisel away at any conspiracy that we are hiding something.鈥� 

Such conspiracy theories had already become widespread in online forums, including 4Chan. In one online forum dedicated to mass shootings, users compared the Uvalde suspect to the perpetrator who carried out the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, commenting on their physical and strategic similarities. The forum, whose previous users have included multiple mass shooters, including the Newtown gunman, was flooded with screenshots of the Uvalde suspect鈥檚 social media posts. 

Since the Columbine shooting, standard law enforcement procedures have called on officers to respond to threats immediately even at risk of their own lives, said campus security consultant Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security services. The hallway video from Uvalde, he said, is critical to hold police accountable for their hour-long delay before confronting the gunman. There鈥檇 be reason to withhold footage that depicts the gunman killing children, he wrote in an email, but not of officers in the hallway. That footage, he said, made clear that police lacked a coordinated response during the mayhem. 

鈥淭hat is fair game for public scrutiny especially given the conflicting accounts and finger pointing by public officials,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淭here are questions about accountability and you cannot have accountability without transparency.鈥�

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut and a leading proponent of tighter gun control measures, also sees utility in the video. In an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC, Murphy said it clearly dispels a common right-wing talking point that 鈥渢he only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is good guys with a gun.鈥� 

鈥淚f one teenager with a high-powered weapon is so scary as to prevent all of those highly trained adults from going in and saving lives, maybe we should try to stop those teenagers from having those kinds of guns in the first place,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淏ecause clearly, we never have enough good guys with guns. We can never have enough high-powered weapons in the hands of law enforcement to stop an assailant if we couldn’t get that job done given what we have seen on the tapes in Uvalde.鈥�

Yet for all its persuasive power, Murphy noted the traumatizing nature of the footage, saying 鈥淚 don’t recommend that people watch it.鈥�

A right to know? 

For years to come, the hallway video will serve as a mass-shooting training tool for police, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate criminal justice professor at the State University of New York at Oswego. And given the intense scrutiny of the officers鈥� response, she said 鈥渢he only way to set the record straight is to release this video.鈥�

鈥淭he footage is so damning,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou had officers sitting there on their phones, you had an officer who was not only on his phone but then went and sanitized his hands. It鈥檚 incredibly problematic.鈥�

Several officers can be seen checking their phones during the long standoff in the hallway, although a clarified that one who had come under particular attack was Uvalde school police Officer Ruben Ruiz, whose wife, Eva Mireles, had called her husband to tell him she had been shot inside the classroom. Mireles and her co-teacher, Irma Garcia, were both killed protecting their students.

Schildkraut said the video has limited value in the public domain, and could actually be harmful for the families of the victims who will be forced to relive the tragedy for the rest of their lives. They should have been given a say about the video鈥檚 public release, she argued, while noting the footage could fall into the wrong hands.聽

鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be people who come up with conspiracy theories and then go harass the families because that鈥檚 what they did in Sandy Hook and they鈥檝e done elsewhere,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his could end up on the dark web and people could idolize this individual even more. What public value does it add?鈥�

After the Sandy Hook shooting, conspiracy theorists flooded the internet with claims the tragedy was a 鈥渇alse flag.鈥� Last year, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones in a defamation lawsuit by victims鈥� families for his repeated claims that the shooting was a hoax. 

A similar debate over the public鈥檚 right to know key details also followed the Columbine shooting, Langman said. Extensive footage has become publicly available, including the cafeteria surveillance video and other homemade videos created by the perpetrators. But some were never publicized, most notably the 鈥渂asement tapes,鈥� which reportedly included some four hours of film that offer a window into the motives and plans of the perpetrators just weeks before they carried out the attack. The tapes were due to concerns they could inspire more violence. 

American University鈥檚 Braddock said the Uvalde hallway video presents a catch-22. Transparency around the police response is important, he said, but it also offers a wealth of material to online circles of people with morbid curiosities or worse

鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to turn the images from that video into memes that can circulate within these circles online, and those can serve to build other little communities of would-be mass shooters,鈥� he said.