LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Clark County School District officials are warning parents about social media trends and rumors that can disrupt the school day.
Specifically, the rise in school threats made online.
FOX5 head from CCSD Police about the vague threats, and the very real consequences they have.
Parents received an email about addressing unsubstantiated school threats nationwide. But right here at home, a CCSD student was arrested for online threats less than a week ago.
CCSD Police Department Public Information Officer, Lieutenant Bryan Zink says even if it’s a joke, it’s no laughing matter.
“We always say think before you click, because once you hit send, you can’t take it back,” Zink said.
FOX5 learned a male high school student was arrested for making online threats this year and last year.
CCSD officials know these threats can spread like wildfire.
Lieutenant Zink explains why it took a while to track down the former CCSD student.
“The person that was sending the message was using different varied ways of hiding their identity, but ultimately we were able to figure out who they were and what they were doing is that they had been sending messages as if they were somebody else,” Zink said. “He was arrested for terroristic threats.”
These threats are not taken lightly, and the process of investigating each post uses a lot of resources.
“It can be very time consuming because we can get one message that’s very specific to one location on Monday, and then Tuesday, it’s spread to another school.”
That’s why instead of reposting the threat, which can cause alarm, Lieutenant Zink and CCSD leaders are telling parents and students to use the Safe Voice app and hotline, which is an anonymous way to report threats of school violence.
Hundreds of tips came into Safe Voice about a planned school attack or threat to school last year at schools across the state. There were 226 reports of that, as well as 90 tips about guns and 19 bomb threats.
Lieutenant Zink says these threats are not taken lightly.
“Until we can prove that it’s not real, we will increase our patrol around those schools,” Zink said.
But figuring out what’s real and what’s not is more difficult online.
“Sometimes we’ll get threats that will have an entire list of schools, and then we’ll start looking at those, and we’ll realize these aren’t schools in Las Vegas, these are schools in California. Somebody found this on social media now they’re spreading it,” Zink said.
Parents and students are asked not to share these posts because they can create copycats.
The Safe Voice app is free and available 24-7.
District leaders say “Student safety is our top priority,” and they have asked parents to monitor their student’s social media accounts for anything suspicious.
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