That has not been Jim Whealon's experience. As superintendent of schools in Anaconda, Mont., he tried zero tolerance. Threats this year were still so frequent that officials lost count. One answer doesn't fit all situations. The one answer gets you into trouble pretty quickly.
Some experts warn that punishment that is too harsh can be counterproductive.
Larry Ankrom, chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, said children will not tell on other students if they think their classmates will be treated unfairly. The other side of handling the problem is recognizing that not all threats are equal, nor should they be handled the same way. And out of 1,500 bomb threats, there probably won't be one where there is a device that could hurt anyone. Dietz's company teaches businesses how to assess and handle threats. The FBI's assessment model, which was made available to schools online in September, lists factors to consider in sizing up the seriousness of a threat.