302 arrested in Brazil for threats to commit school massacres, says Government

At least 302 people were detained or temporarily arrested on charges of participating in threats or planning attacks against schools across Brazil, Brazilian Justice Minister Flávio Dino said Thursday.

The report came on a day when all states increased security in schools, given that all detected digital threats pointed to April 20 as a day prone to possible attacks.

April 20 coincides with the Columbine massacre that resulted in 15 deaths in the United States in 1999 in a school shooting.

Minister Dino reported that Operation Safe School resulted in the arrest of 302 people in the last two weeks linked to threats or attacks on schools.

The operation was launched with regional police after the massacre perpetrated by a 25-year-old man in Blumenau, Santa Catarina state, on April 5. He killed four children with an axe when he invaded a kindergarten.

On March 27, a 13-year-old student killed a teacher with a knife at a middle school in Sao Paulo and injured five other people.

“We understand the families who did not want to take their children to school on this day,” Dino commented to the press, referring to the extensive absenteeism recorded, especially in public schools in Sao Paulo, the country’s largest city.

The operations were possible due to the monitoring of social networks. This work resulted in removing or preserving content for the investigation of 812 profiles on social networks identified as threats to schools.

“This work has no end date,” said Dino.