A student reports that there is a man with a gun on the campus of Cupertino Middle School.

Police are informed and the school immediately goes “code red,” a mandatory lockdown of all students, faculty and staff on the campus.

Police respond in full force, blockading access around the school and initiating a search for the suspected gunman.

The nearby campuses of Homestead High and West Valley Elementary go

“code blue.” Doors are locked; staff are strategically placed to monitor the school, but classroom instruction continues.

Frantic parents are advised via Facebook and Twitter to report to a specific location where a Sunnyvale Public Safety representative updates them on the latest information.

Another hour passes until parents receive the good news.

“Search is shutting down. New info indicates gunman was fabricated,” as Sunnyvale Public Safety reports via Twitter.

In the end, the entire incident is a hoax perpetrated by a student, who has remained unidentified due to his or her status as a minor.

If the above incident happened at another time, it would have been just another hoax created by an attention-seeking child and the response may not have been as swift or intense.

But this is not the case.

Our country has been in a heightened state of anxiety following the horrific slaying of 20 children on Dec. 14 and this newest case of a child-who-cried-wolf is only a symptom of a deeper issue within our society.

The natural response following a disaster such as the Newtown, Conn., shootings is to overcompensate: laws are passed, new procedures are implemented and the rights of innocent people are infringed upon.

It’s as if, as a country, after each disaster, we collectively flinch at every sign of aggression and every possibility of more pain.

And in this state of anxiety, we desperately seek a solution, any solution, so that such terrible tragedies may never happen again.

However, the unfortunate fact is that our natural responses have not and will not be enough to stop these tragedies from happening again.

Nearly 13 years have passed since 12 students were massacred at Columbine High School by two of their fellow students, 17 year-old Dylan Klebold and 18 year-old Eric Harris.

Parents and students across the country were horrified by the Columbine disaster. Schools, police departments and city governments all implemented new safety protocols in response to stop this from happening again.

The “code blue” and “code red” lockdown procedures used by the Sunnyvale School District were implemented in response to Columbine, according to their website.

The truth is, these shootings are not a new phenomenon and many schools, such as the Sunnyvale School District, have already taken necessary steps to protect students.

The Sunnyvale School District, its teachers, staff and administrators, should be commended for their decisive action last Friday. The fact that it turned out to be a prank should not change any future responses to such a perceived threat.

The City of Sunnyvale should also be commended for keeping an updated flow of information for everyone to follow via Facebook and Twitter. By directing parents to an off-campus location for more information, they gave parents a safe place to go and an outlet to express their fears and anxieties.

Any safety procedures will only work if they are taken seriously, and if it is proven that the middle school student who reported the gunman intentionally lied, he or she should be punished to the full extent of the law. Such a deception is as dangerous to society as shouting “fire!” in a crowded room.

Yet, if we truly wish to stop future acts of mass murder, we must collectively ask ourselves why this keeps happening time and again.

We cannot allow ourselves to write these disasters off as the final acts of the mentally ill. Even if this were true, it raises the question: Why is violent mental illness such a pervasive issue in our country?

These ever-repeating acts of aggression are a warning that something is inherently wrong with our society, and that something has to be done.

It’s everyone’s job to make sure the solutions we implement do not infringe upon the rights of our citizens. But if it turns out that the only solution to ending the ever-recurring bloodshed is to infringe on specific rights, we must decide to do so, together.

So it goes without saying that the student should be made an example of. But we must keep in mind that he or she is reacting to deep issues within our society, and that these issues may be deeper than many of us are willing to acknowledge or accept.

If we are to stop these acts of aggression, we must begin questioning and examining everything – absolutely everything – from gun laws to mental health policy and treatment. Above all we must be willing to make whatever changes are necessary.

Otherwise, the blood will never stop flowing.