As colleges across the country kick off the fall semester, the return to campus at nearly a dozen schools — including West Virginia University — has been plagued by false reports of mass shootings.

And after a shooter killed two schoolchildren and injured 17 others at a Minneapolis Catholic school on Wednesday, tensions are high on college campuses and at K-12 schools across the country.

“The hoax calls are throwing gas on the fire,” said Ari Lightman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of digital media marketing in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. “There’s so much indecision and chaos already going on at the beginning of the school year. Students are trying to figure out classes, books, friend circles, support services, and then this sort of thing happens.

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