COPYCAT CRIMES in the wake of the Columbine massacre.

Fall-out from this week's Colorado high school rampage hit schools nationwide on Friday as nervous administrators and parents acted on a rash of threats of copycat violence. Schools reported bomb scares, threats of mass violence and students showing up in long black trench coats.

-- In Canada, a high school in the province of New Brunswick banned students from wearing black trench coats.

-- In New Jersey, school officials were on alert Friday in the small town of Spotswood after an 18-year-old threatened to blow up his high school on the same day as the Colorado school shooting. Police arrested the student on Tuesday after he told a teacher in a rage that he wanted to kill her and another teacher and blow up the school.

-- At a north Texas school for fifth and sixth graders, almost half the 660 pupils were kept home by their parents a day after police brought in a sniffer dog to check a bomb threat painted on a cafeteria wall. No bomb was found but police remained outside the Wylie Intermediate School on Friday in a show of force intended to reassure parents, who pulled out nearly all the children Thursday.

-- A 17-year-old boy was arrested in suburban Seattle after chopping off the head of a kitten in a rampage apparently triggered by television coverage of the Colorado school shootings. The boy reportedly laughed at the news coverage and told his mother: "When I get older some of my friends are going to do that." He then attacked the kitten with a hatchet and also damaged his mother's car.

-- In the Los Angeles suburb of Mission Hills, a 17-year-old boy was reported to have committed suicide and left a note referring to his sadness over the deaths of the 15 people in Littleton. The youth was said by family and friends to have been severely depressed and "a self-perceived outcast."

-- In Jacksonville, Florida, a 12-year-old girl was arrested after another student heard her talking about bringing a bomb and guns to school the next day to kill people during the lunch hour. No weapons were found.

-- In Florida, two Gainesville High School students were suspended for wearing black trench coats.

-- Two 15-year-old boys at a Texas high school were arrested and expelled for taking a loaded gun and a fake bomb to school Thursday. One boy waved a loaded gun in front of classmates when the teacher was absent, although he didn't threaten anyone directly. At the same school a fake bomb was found when a student's locker was searched after he was heard describing the recent Colorado school massacre as "cool."

-- A high school in Laurel, Maryland, a Washington area suburb, sent home 2,000 students Friday morning after a note was found in the boys' restroom saying there was a bomb in the building.  Investigators using sniffer dogs found nothing suspicious and no disciplinary action was immediately taken.

Clark Staten, Sr. analyst and Executive Director of the Emergency Response & Research Institute, said that there are often so-called "copy-cat" incidents following events like those in Littleton. "It's amazing how many people try to take advantage of a tragic act like Littleton in order to somehow feel more important themselves," Staten said. "These stories may point to the fact that we have far more troubled youth out there than most people would believe...all too many of them are thirsting for recognition and acknowledgement...often in the wrong ways," he added. "The parents and friends of these young people must address this need in a positive way, or we can expect more atrocities like Littleton in the coming days," Staten concluded.