PITTSBURGH — Threats of school violence on social media are becoming a dangerous and disruptive trend in our schools.

“Honestly, I often say, social media—and specifically Snapchat, is the devil!” Propel Montour High School Principal Dr. Clifford Wallace told 11 Investigates Angie Moreschi.

Propel Montour was among about 20 schools dealing with a rash of social media threats to Pittsburgh area schools, in just one month at the end of last year. They start on SnapChat, TikTok, and other platforms and law enforcement says it’s a growing problem.

We take a deeper look at the impact of these threats and what can be done to help stop them. Read on to find out more, including the one thing students and parents should be doing that you might not realize.

One word: Scary

The daily rhythm of school is being disrupted more often than ever by threats of violence on social media.

“It can traumatize you and make you not want to go to school anymore,” Propel Montour 11th grader Anthony Luster-Page told 11 Investigates Angie Moreschi.

Students say the threats are frightening and stressful, even when they turn out to be hoaxes.

“One word—it’s just scary. That’s what it is. It’s scary,” said 17-year-old Alyaha Lee-Rice, a senior at Propel.

The threats often spread quickly through the community, as they are shared again and again on social media.

This was one of the most prolific threats, which started on Snapchat: “Tomorrow November 30th is gonna be a show at propel montour, im firing gun shots at 12:45 pm so be careful. ;) if I don’t make it tomorrow I will be there on a Wednesday better hope I don’t bomb it instead.”

The language in that post was replicated multiple times using different school names, including—West Mifflin, Brashear, Penn Hills, North Hills, South Hills, Sto-Rox, McKeesport, Propel and more. It sent many of the schools into lock-down or virtual learning out of an abundance of caution to protect students and staff.

“It’s just really scary that a place that’s supposed to protect you is now possibly gonna be a place that can hurt you,” said Skylar Simpson, a Propel Montour 11th grader.

Propel Montour has dealt with four of these threats in recent months.

“The first two, the panic was at a high level. I’m going to say maybe a 9 out of 10,” said Propel Montour Principal Wallace.

Insight from students

11 Investigates Angie Moreschi sat down with four students from Propel Montour to find out how these threats impact them, even when they’re hoaxes.

The students—senior Alayha Lee-Rice, sophomore Amir Criswell, junior Skylar Simpson, and junior Anthony Luster-Page— are all smart, opinionated, and care a lot.

“I care because I want to feel comfortable where I’m learning, and where I’m going to school,”

Amir told us.

And senior Alayha, who plans to attend nursing school when she graduates, told us, “I care because the topic is something that is very real, and it really does happen.”

The most recent very real school shooting happened in Oxford, Michigan, last fall. A 15-year-old opened fire in a hallway at his school, killing four students and injuring seven.

That happened just before the rash of threats in the Pittsburgh area.

We asked the students if they worried that the social media threat against their school might be real, too. They all nodded, yes.

“I was scared to come to school,” Skylar said.

All threats are taken seriously

Thankfully, the recent threats here were all hoaxes. The FBI was called in to help local police investigate.

“It’s a lot of copycat going on,” said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tim Wolford. “One gets posted, a school gets closed down, and then other kids are getting ideas— like ‘Hey, if I post something similar, maybe that will close my school down, as well.”

The FBI says they work closely with social media companies to track down the original posters of these threats.

We reached out to several platforms for comment and received this from Snapchat:

“We have zero tolerance for any activity that threatens violence through Snapchat and we aggressively enforce against these violations. We encourage anyone who sees this type of activity to immediately report it to the authorities. Our dedicated Law Enforcement Operations team is available around the clock to handle emergency requests from authorities, which are usually responded to within 30 minutes.”  -- Snap Spokesperson

It’s a relief the threats here in Southwestern Pennsylvania were not more serious, but they were still frustrating to the Propel students we talked with, who take their education seriously.

“It makes me upset. Just ‘cause you don’t care about your education, don’t mess up someone else’s,” Skylar said.

Going back to virtual learning, even for one day, is something they say they hate, especially after dealing with the COVID shutdown for so long,

“There are people who come to school, because they want to chase their dreams and all that, but they can’t because they’re forced to sit at home,” Anthony said.

One thing you need to know

Most of the time these threats can be traced-- even when someone tries to post anonymously, like “robert unknown,” in the recent Snapchat threats.

But one thing students and parents might not realize is that sharing the post on social media—

even with the best intentions to warn others— can actually complicate the process for investigators trying to determine if the threat is credible.

“Someone takes a screenshot of it, and then shares it with a bunch of people, and then that gets shared, and that gets shared. So, the further out that happens, the harder sometimes it is to track down the original source,” FBI agent Wolford told 11 Investigates.

The FBI recommends that you don’t share the post. Instead, they say just contact police, as quickly as possible, so they can determine if it’s a credible threat.

“Usually, it’s tracking that person down who made that threat and doing an interview; making sure that there are no weapons in the house; talking to parents; making sure that that person is not an imminent threat,” Wolford explained.

Whether it is a real threat or not, it’s still very serious. At least three students have been charged in the recent rash of threats.

“This is a criminal offense. Sometimes they think in their head this is a joke, I’m not being serious,” Wolford said, talking about the young people who post the original threats. “They can be charged. It is very serious.”

We asked the students if they think the kids who do this realize just how serious it is.

“I don’t think some people do. I think they just find it funny. They’re just like attention seeking,” Skylar told us.

What you can do

The students all told us they think social media makes it worse because students become addicted and constantly try to get a reaction.

“Social media holds too much power over you,” Alayha said.

“I don’t have social media. I think it can get toxic,” added Amir, who says he doesn’t have any social media accounts at all.

Since most kids won’t give up social media, both police and schools urge parents to be more proactive and pay closer attention to what their kids do on social media.

“Parents, please monitor your student’s, your children’s social media activity, Propel Principal Dr. Wallace said. “If we all do that, we will reduce what’s going on today.”

Click here for tips from the National Association of School Psychologists on how to help prevent school violence.

When the threat is REAL

When you have so many hoax threats, police say it’s easy to become complacent and not take them seriously, but that’s the last thing you should do. It’s important to remain vigilant until the threat has been discredited by law enforcement.

“The more hoaxes you get, then the more that complacency could possibly build,” said agent Wolford. “So, we’re constantly on guard against that, making sure we run all these down, but that is a danger.”

A danger, because, as we’ve seen in so many communities—from Columbine to Oxford, you never know when a threat could be real.

The Department of Homeland Security offers this advice on how to respond when an active shooter is in your school:

1. Evacuate: if there is a safe and accessible path.
2. Hide out: if evacuation is not possible; try to find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.
3. Take action: against the active shooter, as a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger.

Click here to read more detailed information from the Department of Homeland Security.

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