Since the Sept. 4 Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia that left four dead and nine injured, there have been several threats of violence toward schools in Virginia, including some locally.

Two school threats occurred Tuesday morning and noon at schools in Chesterfield County. Tomahawk Creek Middle School was closed Tuesday after authorities were notified that a parent said their child overheard two students on a bus discussing bringing a gun to school.

Around noon, another incident took place at Meadowbrook High School, where a student was stabbed during an altercation with another student.

The victim sustained serious injuries and was transported to a hospital for treatment. As a result of the assault, the school remained under lockdown for the rest of the day. The school allowed an early dismissal in the early afternoon, with parents collecting their children at Meadowdale Library. Both schools were closed Wednesday, and all Chesterfield County schools are closed Thursday due to a previously scheduled districtwide closure.

Richmond Public Schools stated they have been taking numerous precautions to ensure the safety of its students. In a Sept. 16 email newsletter to families from Superintendent Jason Kamras, the superintendent stated the school division has invested in numerous safety measures such as metal detectors in middle and high schools, additional security cameras and personnel, a new panic alert system and upgraded intercoms.

“Please know that I spend nearly every waking hour — and many sleeping ones as well — thinking about this,”Kamras emphasized in the newsletter. “I humbly ask for your help.”

While most of these school threats are often false or isolated incidents, it has been reported at least 36 school divisions statewide – including RPS – have seen an uptick in threats of violence such as shootings and bomb threats.

It is still uncertain why these upticks continue to happen after the Apalachee High shooting. However, University of Virginia education professor, Dewey Cornell, theorized to the Washington Post that it is common to see an uptick in school threats after a recent school shooting. Cornell said some threats are due to, “copycat behavior by students.”

Virginia’s penal code, 18.2-60, on threats of death or physical harm to others on school property — whether or not the threat is a joke — will result in a Class 6 felony, resulting in up to one to five years in prison.