- Experts suggest incarceration is less effective than comprehensive treatment for at-risk youth.
- Wisconsin has seen a sharp increase in tips about planned school attacks and police calls to schools.
- Schools and mental health services lack the funding and trained staff to address the growing problem.
On the morning of Nov. 7, 2024, a 13-year-old boy carrying a suspicious bag tried to access several locked entrances to Roosevelt Elementary School in Kenosha, then ran away when a school official questioned him.
After police watched video of the incident, they went to the boy’s home with a search warrant, where they found airsoft rifles, a stockpile of replica handguns, maps of the school, information on other school shooters, and a constellation of websites associated with extreme violence in his internet search history.
Arrested and charged with one count of making terrorist threats, the boy was sentenced on Jan. 27, 2025, to one-year in juvenile detention, with 82 days deducted for time served.