In the wake of the deadly shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School two weeks ago, several additional threats of violence have popped up across the region. One of those threats was on Oct. 30 at Federal Way High School. As a result, the school was in an emergency lockdown for a brief period of time in the morning. The student who allegedly threatened one or more students at the school was taken into custody by police at the Federal Way Transit Center. No injuries were reported.

On Oct. 29, a rumor of a threat at Kent-Meridian High School surfaced, but school officials determined that it wasn’t credible. Parents were allowed to keep their children home from school the following day.

These types of instances are referred to as “copy cat” threats.

Kevin Patterson, spokesperson for Tahoma School District said these threats are all too common after a shooting takes place, and proximity has made them even more prevalent in this area recently.

“I think we notice (copy cat threats) more because it happens literally in our back yard,” he said. “Whereas, if it was happening across the country, we may not notice it as much. People are paying closer attention to it because it happened here.”

Tahoma schools are doing what they can to learn from the recent shooting to keep students safe as much as possible.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons from those other shootings,” Patterson said. “We try to incorporate those (lessons) in our training and preparation.”

Patterson said the last time a majority of schools significantly changed their training and procedures for emergencies was after the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, where two teens killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others in Littleton, Colo.

He also added the district hasn’t made any significant training changes due to the shooting in Marysville.

But, considering the location and timing of the shooting in Marysville – in the cafeteria at lunchtime – it’s difficult to prepare for every scenario possible.

“You just rely on the adults in the room and the students who have been trained, to clear the area as soon as possible and get to a place of safety and wait for help,” Patterson said.

Most school drills happen when students are in class, which can make it difficult for students and staff to be prepared for an emergency lockdown in between classes.

Over the course of the school year, public schools in Washington are required to conduct at least three fire evacuation drills, three lockdown drills, one shelter-in-place drill, and one high-risk event drill like earthquake or flood.

In addition to these mandated drills, the district also does an active shooter drill at Tahoma Junior High every year. That drill is done in collaboration with the King County Sheriff’s Office and the SWAT team to simulate an active shooter scenario in the school. Students and staff are warned about the drill ahead of time because it’s not designed to scare anyone, it’s designed to be a learning experience, Patterson said.

Kent School District has similar training in place for such scenarios.

At each school in Kent, all three of their mandated lockdown drills have an active shooter component, says Kent School District Spokesperson Chris Loftis.

In addition, staff members the Kent district go through a “Run, Hide, Fight” incident response training on an annual basis.

“In conjunction with the district’s safety and security enhancements (fortified locks, surveillance cameras, ID badges, etc.) I believe the ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ method of training is the most effective tool for our staff and students to use in the case of an active, life-threatening intruder,” said Tim Kovich, safety services operations manager for the district.

Kent resident and parent, Mark Rogers, said he’s not concerned about a shooting happening in this area. His youngest son, Trask, is a sophomore at Kentlake High School.

Rogers said there are other things that concern him more than a potential shooting at his son’s school.

“They are in a lot more danger driving to school every day,” he said. “It’s not too much of a worry for us.”

Both the Kent and Tahoma school districts also have security officers on campuses throughout the districts on a daily basis.

Federal Emergency Management Agency has resources for the general public as well as schools on active shooter training and procedures, including classroom resources and an interactive web course. The course, “Active Shooter: What You Can Do” is available to anyone interested and can be found on FEMA’s website at www.training.fema.gov/EMI/