SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif — Sacramento-area schools have been contending with false threats, some of which have been part of a national social media trend.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office says it investigated social media threats to Antelope Crossing Middle School in the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District and Del Campo High School in the San Juan Unified School District Thursday and found the threats were not credible.
“Even though these threats are not credible, it does cause a lot of stress and anxiety for our students, staff and our families and our communities,” said Renee Balderas, the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District Chief Communications Officer. “Our campuses are safe; we take every threat seriously.”
Citrus Heights Police told ABC10 its officers also investigated a social media threat to Mesa Verde High School in the San Juan Unified School District and deemed the threat as not credible.
“This most recent one seems to be a part of a national trend that has not been deemed credible in Sacramento,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Amar Gandhi.
The larger, nationwide social media trend remains vague and indicates general threats of violence.
“Primarily it is shared on Snapchat and some other social media platforms,” said Gandhi.
"Protecting the safety and well-being of young people on Snapchat is a top priority, and this type of activity has no place on Snapchat. We are actively looking into these reports and will continue to work closely with law enforcement to support their investigations and strengthen our work to prevent abuse of our platform. We also encourage our community to report this type of content to law enforcement directly and through our reporting tools," Snapchat told ABC10 in a statement.
The false threats are attracting the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"The FBI takes potential hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. We work closely with our law enforcement partners to determine their credibility, share information, and take appropriate investigative action. As always, we encourage members of the public to remain vigilant and immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.," FBI Sacramento told ABC10 in a statement.
The false threats came in the same week a 13-year-old was arrested for making false threats towards Silverado Middle School in Roseville.
Carolyn Brown has a child who goes to Silverado and wishes the staff had notified the parents earlier of what happened and the procedures in place to protect the kids.
“The world we live in — that is not going to cut it anymore for parents. We need to know what is going on,” said Brown. “Hopefully use this as a learning lesson.”
While Antelope Crossing Middle School dealt with the false threat Thursday morning, the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District and the SCSO confirmed it handled a second threat in the afternoon and said the student in question was cited.
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