They’ve been phoned in to the schools and to central offices.

They’ve been graffitied on bathroom stalls.

They’ve been posted online.

Alpena Public Schools, like many schools across the country, has dealt in recent weeks with a number of rumored or suspected threats against their schools. Threats have hit Besser Elementary, Thunder Bay Junior High School, Alpena High School, and the APS Central Office.

Sometimes, schools went into lockdown or secure mode over the threats. Each time, police got involved. In each instance, officials determined no credible threat actually existed.

That has to stop.

These faux threats waste taxpayer resources. They waste money. They waste time that school officials could better spend educating our kids and police could better spend keeping our communities safe.

We urge every parent to talk to their kids about the seriousness of making threats of any kind, even if those threats are made in jest. There’s nothing funny about them.

We urge every parent to talk to their kids about reporting to school officials when they know who made the threat.

We have to end the threats, and we parents play the biggest role in making sure that happens.