Tens of thousands of North Texas students will return to class on Monday amid a growing concern about online threats of violence posted to social media.
Since the Valentine’s Day shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people, local police have arrested students for posting online threats in Arlington, Cedar Hill, Ennis, Granbury, Grand Prairie, Krum, Lewisville, Springtown and Weatherford.
The Parker County Sheriff’s Department charged a 15-year-old with making terroristic threats earlier this month after he reportedly posted a threat to Snapchat that he would “shoot up” Cross Timbers Academy, a public charter school just south of Weatherford.
“That’s not funny. I mean there’s nothing funny about that,” said Sheriff Larry Fowler. “People died [in Florida] and somebody wants to crack jokes or make a threat and upset a lot of people? Not a good idea.”
Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner penned an open letter to parents and guardians the day before Spring Break began, asking them to help be the eyes and ears in monitoring social media for threats.
“Prank messages that threaten the safety and security of public facilities, such as schools, whether posted on social media, or written on a restroom wall, are crimes,” Dr. Scribner wrote. “Students who further distribute prank messages may also be culpable of furthering the prank.”
