ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cops, prosecutors, teachers and educators say school shooting threats are serious and they think it’s time New Mexico’s laws reflect that.

“Albuquerque Police Department investigated 28 of these incidents in September. That’s 28 times the school was disrupted,” Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said Tuesday.

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez proposed boosting the charge of making a school shooting threat. Currently, it’s a misdemeanor. The proposal, if lawmakers passed it, boosts it to a felony.

“There is simply no excuse to threaten a school and to threaten gun violence,” AG Torrez said.

Torrez said the state’s current Children’s Code lets CYFD’s Juvenile Justice Unit resolves up to three misdemeanor cases, including threats of a school shooting, without the involvement of a prosecutor.

That’s not the case for felonies.

“I think that creates a real problem, in terms of identifying patterns of behavior with specific kids that are in desperate need of intervention,” Torrez said.

State Rep. Joy Garratt said she will sponsor the bill during the upcoming regular session of the New Mexico Legislature.

“We’re changing one word, misdemeanor, to three words, fourth-degree felony. And that will have an incredible impact,” Garratt said. “Our kids and our educators deserve to be kids. [They deserve] to walk the halls of their schools and to play on the playground without worrying about guns and violence.”

Republicans have tried to pass a similar measure for at least the last three sessions. We spoke to state Sen. Craig Brandt – who represents District 40, including Rio Rancho – about these efforts.

Educators called the forthcoming proposal as one important piece of the bigger public safety puzzle.

“When your kids don’t feel safe, they can’t learn. It assassinates the soul of a community,” said Amy Suman, the superintendent at Pojoaque Valley School District.

What about a buy-in from students?

We asked him, “How do you get the kids to realize what a misdemeanor is versus what a felony is? Will I actually get punished for this? Will I go to jail? Whatever it may be? How do you get them to stop?”

“We need to match our response with a level of seriousness that, frankly, we currently don’t have,” Torrez said.

It’s something these leaders believe we should.