SC School Safety Symposium Puts Online Threats on the Agenda

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — Roughly 300 teachers, school administrators and law enforcement officers spent Tuesday at South Carolina’s first statewide School Safety and Security Symposium, a full-day session aimed as much at dangers students meet on their phones as at threats inside school buildings.

The gathering brought in the state Department of Education, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, with training on threat assessment, violence prevention and the warning signs that a child has been drawn into harmful online groups.

Federal officials described a sharp rise in cases where adults in organized online groups, which investigators call nihilistic violent extremists, use gaming platforms and messaging apps to push children toward hurting themselves or others. Sextortion schemes, in which criminals use compromising images to demand money, were also on the agenda; those cases can push young victims toward suicide.

U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said his office has also seen more cases involving threats to students, and he argued that some investigations crossing county lines might have closed sooner if local agencies knew what their neighbors were seeing. He said children need at least one trusted adult they can approach without fear of judgment.

State Superintendent Ellen Weaver said physical safety stays a top priority. Her department plans to ask lawmakers next session for a School Support Officer pilot, placing trained staff who are not certified police alongside school resource officers as an added layer of protection. Florida and Virginia already run similar programs. No price tag has been announced.

Lawmakers are also expected to take another look at Alyssa’s Law, which would require mobile panic alert systems that let school staff summon police and first responders quickly. Some districts already have the technology, and how a statewide mandate would be paid for remains the open question.

The state has already put significant money into school security. Legislators have funded $20 million in school safety grants for a fourth year, covering items such as better door locks, weapons detection and cellphone storage. A $5 million mapping program from 2024 gives officers school layouts for emergencies, and about $160 million since 2018 has helped districts pay armed officers, so that by last year every public school could afford a full-time school resource officer. A 2024 law bars student cellphone use during the school day, and a 2026 law limiting social media accounts for minors is tied up in a court challenge from tech companies.

Filed under: Chapin SC Education News