BC3 Professor Steven Shaffer talks about the recent school shooting with his criminology students at BC3 campus on Friday.

In the wake of the school shooting that occurred in Parkland, Fla., last week, several “copy cat” threat incidents have begun popping up — and Butler County was not immune.

Threats against districts included Butler School District, South Butler County School District, Karns City School District and surrounding school districts of New Castle in Lawrence County and Connellsville in Fayette County, to name a few.

Universities and colleges in Butler County are using the incidents as teaching tools, discussing with college students ways to prevent school violence threats and how to better understand the underlying nature of those threats.

Steven Shaffer, program coordinator for the criminology department at Butler County Community College and a former police officer in Connellsville for 18 years, said he dedicated his class time last week to discussing school shooting in Florida and threat incidents.

“The students voiced some concerns, but were very respectful to argument and did not let passion come into play,” he said. “I wish more people would be like my students.”

Threat incidents began popping up locally following the Feb. 14 Florida shooting, where a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Susan Lubinski, associate professor in the Criminology & Security Studies department at Slippery Rock University, said copy cat events such as this tend to occur after a tragic incident, where people see an opportunity to take advantage. She said copy cat incidents are cyclical and are a “common phenomena” after a tragedy.

“I think there is a lot of people who are doing this, a lot of students who are doing it, that are merely attention-seeking and think they are not going to be caught or there isn't a serious issues there,” she said.

Shaffer said many times the incidents occur when “irresponsible students take advantage of the situation” and make a threat in the hopes that they will get out of classes. He said many children in our society are desensitized to violence, which could lead to trying to take advantage of the situations.

“Some of these kids actually think this is a funny thing, but this is no laughing matter,” Shaffer said. “Something needs to be done and those students who are caught making these threats need to be prosecuted to the highest measure of the law.”

To learn more about this story, read Sunday's Butler Eagle.