In the 2024-2025 school year, 2,058 violent threats were sent to schools. Four hundred ninety of those threats became real incidents, resulting in the deaths of multiple students.

When a familiar announcement crackled over the intercom on March 14, 2025, advising students and staff to remain calm, few panicked. In fact, most packed up their bags without thinking twice, relieved they got to go home for the day for the third time that school year. With the routine threats and lockdowns, this calm is a sign of desensitization.

Students at MVHS experienced three safety threats last school year and MVHS has received at least one threat per year in the previous two school years. While the rest of the school had the day off, targeted students encountered a different experience. During the third violent threat of the year, junior Saanj Rao had just been elected for a Leadership role in the upcoming school year when she and two others who had been elected received an email containing graphic images. Since this had happened twice before, she was told by an assistant principal to ignore it, even though she was concerned for her own and her peers’ safety.

“This had happened so many times,” Rao said. “If the staff are going to tell me that there isn’t an issue, then that’s all I can believe. But I was also taken aback, because even though I was calmer than the average person, I was still treated as if I was overreacting.” 

Although the staff told Rao that everything was under control, she was still deeply affected by the incident, which at first seemed unrelated to school, until she realized some of her peers received it too. While MVHS’ student body continued their day after being released from campus, a select few, including Rao, were left to cope with the disturbing threats they received firsthand.  

“A lot of people didn’t take it seriously, because when you first see that email without any context, you assume that it is an external issue,” Rao said. “It was a little frustrating walking out and seeing everyone so excited to be released from school. My day was just sacrificed for everyone else’s joy.” 

Junior Emilie Chan was present for all three threats, and she said that by the third time, she was expecting them and was no longer concerned for her safety. Chan felt a sense of normality and even relief that school would be over for the day. To her, it was just another safety threat.

Since MVHS’ campus safety has been compromised by these threats, students have grown used to the same routine of leaving campus once they’re allowed to, unfazed. This constant exposure leads students and staff to become desensititzed. Chan views events like these threats much differently than her friends’ perspective in the same situation. To her, these threats are not something to worry about, whereas to them, they’re some of the scariest situations they have encountered at school.

“I feel a sense of numbness when I think of a bomb threat now,” Chan said. “But when my other friends from other schools talk about bomb threats, immediately it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, someone is probably trying to skip school.’ And for me, it’s like a disconnect because I experience it differently than others.” 

Although many students on MVHS’ campus may feel a sense of numbness to the repeated threats according to Chan, Chemistry teacher Elizabeth McCracken believes there is still a damaging effect of distress that comes with encountering safety threats so many times. During the incidents, McCracken kept her class room as calm as she could, and she emphasizes the importance of talking to trusted people because an experience like this can distress students and staff regardless of the credibility or frequency of the threat.

“I think it’s impactful whether it happens one time or many times,” McCracken said. “I believe it is trauma that I know that I felt and others felt too. It can be from one incident that happens once, or it can be something that happens multiple times.”

According to Rao, alongside trauma, desensitization to these threats are a reflection of our country. Guns are the leading cause of children and teens’ death in America. Rao also emphasizes that these threats of violence and real incidents are a rising issue that our country has allowed to continue to grow.

“Considering everything that’s going on in our country in other schools, the fact that a lot of people aren’t taking it seriously is pretty concerning, because it is a real issue,” Rao said. “Even though we were all safe, the issue is clearly desensitized at our school. And after that, I was not told anything, even though I was directly affected by the issue. We were just expected to move on.”

Despite the number of times violent threats occur, McCracken highlights that there is a necessity to treat them seriously each time. McCracken also spotlights that gratitude is important as it is the best thing we can do that is in our control and facing these threats with togetherness is a priority. She says the smallest precautions can prevent the biggest tragedies.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow to us as individuals or us as a community,” McCracken said. “The more that we can feel like a community and for every student to feel like they belong, for every staff member to feel like they belong, I believe we’re all stronger for it.”