From the Associated Press:
Educators announced plans to increase security in response to TikTok posts warning of shooting and bomb threats at schools around the country Friday as officials assured parents the viral posts were not considered credible.
The vague, anonymous posts circulating online warned that multiple schools would receive shooting and bomb threats.
The reports of threats on TikTok may be self-perpetuating. Videos being posted to TikTok warn others that they should skip school on December 17th due to supposed threats of shootings or bombings, which seem to have prompted others to create similar videos. And now that schools are canceling classes in response to those supposed threats, a new wave of videos have popped up with additional warnings based on both the supposed claims and the actual, factual cancellations of some school classes.
TikTok says it has not identified any videos making specific threats. “
School districts have dealt with dangerous rumors going viral on TikTok before. This year, there was concern about a “slap a teacher” challenge, which turned out to be fake. Another supposed challenge dared kids to steal items from their school; in that case, some students actually followed through — though others, it turned out, were just pretended to take things to get in on the trend.
