5/18/17 – Over the last couple months, local law enforcement officers have had to investigate multiple school threats across the county. Waupun, Mayville, and Beaver Dam school districts all saw violent threats made against their schools. In his monthly column, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt says education is a key component to prevention. He says it is important for parents to speak with their kids to inform them of the consequences of their actions and affect them for the rest of their life. Schmidt says that students who make these types of threats face suspension or expulsion from school which can make it difficult for them to finish their education. He says that once you are expelled from one school it is very difficult to get into another, often having to get rely on online academy’s to get a diploma. There are also severe legal ramifications that can result from making threats against a school such as citation from law enforcement to being charged with a felony of making terroristic threats. Schmidt says students need to learn that there are alternatives to violence.