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NC Lawmakers Asked To Consider A Crackdown On School Threats

Attendees comfort each other before a vigil for the victims in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. North Carolina education officials are now urging lawmakers to criminalize violence threatened on school property. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

North Carolina education officials want to crack down on false school threats, which have spiked since a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. 

A report by the Educator's School Safety Network says there has been over a 300 percent increase nationally in fake threats reported since 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. 

Now North Carolina officials are urging lawmakers to make it a felony when mass violence is threatened on school property.

More than 84 percent of respondents to a state School Board's Association survey support a bill criminalizing false threats.

The News and Observer reports legislation that stalled in the North Carolina Senate last year is again up for consideration.

Opponents worry that the severity of a felony conviction could follow a student for life.

But supporters say raising the consequences for making a threat could be a deterrent, and cause students to think before they act.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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