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Within two days, three private schools on Oahu received reports of possible threats of violence, which led to the schools shutting down their campuses.

It also intensified concerns from already worried parents about the welfare of their kids — and kids about their own personal safety.

On April 15, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama canceled classes and all sports and extracurricular activities — both on- and off-campus — after a threat of violence was shared on social media.

The post showed a wall with “KSK” written in black and three other lines scribbled out. These lines on social media as saying, “shooting,” “4/15/24” and “goal=15.”

The following day a note found at Damien Memorial School threatened gun violence at the Kalihi school and Maryknoll School in Makiki, prompting lockdowns and cancellations of classes and events.

As in the case with Kamehameha, there was no active shooter and both cases have been classified as first-degree terroristic threatening. All three schools have reopened — but the concern is still there, even from parents like me whose kids go to other schools.

As one Kamehameha Schools parent told KITV, “Whether or not it’s a joke or serious, it‘s not worth risking … Just hearing about shootings in other places makes you realize it’s a very real possibility.”

When I was growing up on Oahu, I can’t recall a time when there was ever a threat of gun violence at my high school. This was in the early ’90s, a time when you could walk your friends to the gate at the airport — with a full water bottle and no boarding pass.

We knew kids who prank-called the school with bomb threats, usually to get out of an exam, but we never took them seriously. (I’m sure the school did, but we didn’t.)

That all changed on April 20, 1999, when two trenchcoat-wearing 12th graders murdered 12 students and one teacher in one of the deadliest mass shootings at a school in U.S. history.

I was in graduate school in Chicago when the massacre at Columbine High School happened, and I remember staring at the security footage of the two armed killers who looked like the kids I went to school with. Suffice it to say, none of them wore trenchcoats again.

And no one took threats lightly anymore.

I want to believe, when I drop off my 7-year-old son at school every morning, he will be, above all else, safe. And he is. His school does a great job communicating with parents, securing the campus and promptly dealing with issues that arise that could be concerning.

The school sent out an email to parents the day Damien and Maryknoll schools shut down, letting us know they were aware of the threat and had been monitoring the situation with the Honolulu Police Department. Still, I worry.

We live in a different time. Even though I caught the bus from the time I was in second grade and wandered around Downtown Honolulu by myself for hours until my parents finished work, I don’t feel comfortable letting my son — who’s about the same age — do the same.

Kidnapping is my main concern — every 40 seconds a child goes missing or is abducted in the U.S., according to the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center — but victim of violence is up there, too.

Schools should be a safe place, and they strive to be. But they haven’t been in recent years.

There have been at least 16 school shootings in the U.S. in the first three months of 2024 alone — three on college campuses and 13 on K-12 school grounds. Nine people died and at least 23 were injured. Mass shootings have been on the rise since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Also on the rise are threats and false alarms in schools, according to the not-for-profit . It reported that in the 2022-2023 school year, school leaders in the U.S. dealt with more than 1,900 threats and 700 incidents of violence.

Already, in fall 2023, the rate of threats of violence in schools has increased 13% from the previous fall. (The high was in 2018, at 1,568.) Bomb threats increased by 57%, from 25.9% of all threats in fall 2022 to 40.6% of all threats in fall 2023. Gun-related threats, however, are on the decline.

As a parent, I’m already a stress case. Are his classmates nice to him? Is he falling behind in math? Am I doing enough as a mom? Are there any health benefits to fruit gummies and Happy Meals?

And now I’m worried about an active shooter opening fire during recess. It’s highly unlikely to happen, but the fear is still there.

The solutions — stronger gun-control laws, more campus security, knowing the warning signs — aren’t simple or easy. But the three schools did the right thing: Take the threat seriously, make sure the kids are safe, communicate with the families and work with authorities.

The only solution that we can do right now, though, is to remember. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. Parkland High. Don’t forget what happened.

And when we need to make decisions — who to vote for, what causes to support, how we talk to our children — hopefully they’ll create a safer place for our kids.