AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Advocacy groups say there’s been a sharp increase this year in Texas students being arrested for threatening violence, with a review of cases suggesting many schools aren’t distinguishing between students who pose a threat and those who don’t.
The report released Tuesday by groups including Texas Appleseed says the spike followed the deadly February high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The report uses Texas Juvenile Justice Department data on arrests for terroristic threat and exhibition of firearms, which doesn’t require possessing a firearm and the majority of students didn’t.
The report says that 1,212 arrests from January through May for terroristic threat compared to 473 arrests in that period last year.
Exhibition of firearms arrests amounted to 259 in that period this year compared to 37 in those months last year.