ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Lauren Methena picks up around her house after the mad dash of getting her four children off to school.

LAUREN METHENA: So I have one high schooler, one middle schooler and two preschoolers.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: She says she's been talking to her kids about violence in schools since kindergarten.

LAUREN METHENA: I'll never forget the day he came home from Fox and he was- from Fox and he was in kindergarten.

And he's like- “so whatd you do at school today?” “Well, we had to hide in the closet while my teacher told us to be really quiet.” He was only six, so he did not know what the significance of it was.

But it completely caught me off guard.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Earlier this month, she had a message about a threat at Dogwood Middle, her daughter's school.

It was one of nearly a dozen threats that have impacted schools across the commonwealth recently.

LAUREN METHENA: An expletive came to mind.

And then my thought was, well, I'm going to have to talk to my daughter about this now and at least mention it so that she's prepared.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: The message which came after the recent deadly school shooting in Georgia, explained the school would have increased security after receiving a threat.

Principal Christopher Jacob said, “I want to reiterate that while additional security this AM may feel alarming, it's so that we can have a safe, focused, and learning filled day LAUREN METHENA: So as scary as it is, I would much rather get a message that, hey, as a precaution, we're keeping some kids home and we're going to have an expanded police presence at the school.

Then the opposite happen.

Nobody wants that news.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Methena says she worries about violence at her children's schools every day.

LAUREN METHENA: I always try to make the last thing that I say to them positive so that at least I will have that memory and know that I made that effort.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: But experts say it's not only the parents feeling the strain from the potential of school violence.

RACHAEL DEANE: We are in, unfortunately unprecedented times for the mental and emotional well-being of our young people.

Rachael Deane, the CEO of Voices for Virginia's Children, says school threats disrupt learning.

RACHAEL DEANE: But its also disruptive on a more personal level, on a mental health level for students to be exposed to these threats.

To feel the natural anxiety that comes with that.

And for families and parents to be worrying about how safe are our children when we send them off to school every day.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: Deane says every school division in the state has a threat assessment protocol that dictates how it handles these situations.

RAHAEL DEANE: So when there is a threat, it's a multidisciplinary team bringing together educators and counselors and law enforcement to assess the threat.

And there's a timeline to do that.

School divisions are also mandated to have their own emergency plans and communications planning that they can implement when there is something that is an urgent threat.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: And back at the Methena home, Lauren says although it's hard, she tries to get past her fears.

LAUREN METHENA: I don't ever want the threat of school violence to become normal.

But I think if we can push over that and then get to what should be the normal part of the day, that is how our family has chosen to deal with it.

ADRIENNE HOAR McGIBBON: For VPM News, I'm Adrienne Hoar McGibbon.