By Daniel Winningham
Thursday, Dec. 16, Perry County School District officials released a statement following an alleged social media challenge.
“We have been made aware this evening of a nation-wide challenge circulating on TikTok to threaten gun violence in schools tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021,” according to the release. “While no specific threats have been made against Perry County School District 32 buildings, teachers or students, we want to be proactive in asking our families to help us prevent someone from making a serious mistake.”
This isn’t the first time the school district has dealt with a threat this time of year, according to Kate Martin, the district’s communication director.
“Several years ago, right around Christmas time, I think, right before Christmas break, there was also a Facebook rumor kind of thing where we put out an alert for parents when we’re on heightened alert, as we were on Friday,” Martin said.
Following the Dec. 16 announcement, the district did receive questions and concerns from parents.
“We had some parent questions, we had some express concern because it was raining and we were asking students to bring their (Google) Chromebooks, but whenever it comes to our students’ safety, no, there’s very little pushback, we get tremendous support from our parents for taking measure to keep them informed first, and the way we were informed, all throughout the month of December we had seen TikTok challenges, different things, nothing aimed at Missouri or our school, certainly no credible threats at all toward our students, staff or facilities,” Martin said.
The administration reviewed the alert and then issued its statement.
“We reviewed that and thought it was best to let our parents know that this had become a nationwide concern, there were no credible threat towards any schools that we knew of in Missouri or our community,” Martin said.
Martin contacted the Perryville police and Perry County sheriff’s departments regarding the situation and they had a “quick conversation.” They then spoke about “what measures we needed to put in place the next day.”
“There were some visible (measures) that everybody sees, the extra staff on duty, extra law enforcement patrol, and then we have some in house things we do that we don’t publicize a lot,” Martin said.
As a team, in an effort to help students help themselves and protect individuals from a potential detrimental reaction that could prove harmful, the district chose to go with a no backpacks policy for Dec. 17. “That would help ease parent concerns, student concerns were then going to be at the building and they had seen these TikTok things and it worked very well for us,” Martin said.
Attempts were made to ease concern and disruption, both for students and parents. Nationwide, about a dozen individuals had been arrested for joking about a possible threat, Martin noted.
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, according to the Missouri Sheriffs’ Association. “The anonymous social media threats had many educators on edge, as they circulated in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Michigan, which has been followed by numerous copycat threats to schools elsewhere.”
An approach with safety in mind has been the district’s goal.
“From top to bottom, administration, law enforcement, we would always rather error on the side of caution with something like this,” she said. “We want our kids to be safe. We want our staff to be safe.
“We’re all on the ball, we’re all working to make sure that it doesn’t turn into a credible threat, we don’t our children to be afraid when they come to school, we don’t want our parents to be afraid sending their kids to school,” Martin said. “Whenever we have information like this we just feel it’s best to share everything that we can.”
TikTok responded to the situation with a series of messages, both Dec. 16 and 17.
“We handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness, which is why we’re working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok,” according to a Dec. 16 post at TikTok’s official Twitter feed (@TikTokComms). The following day, Dec. 17, the following message was posted. “Local authorities, the FBI, and DHS have confirmed there’s no credible threat, so we’re working to remove alarmist warning that violate our misinformation policy.
Martin was first notified about the challenge at approximately 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16. A message about the next day was posted at about 6:30 p.m.
“This isn’t a joke,” Martin said. “…Whoever picks these random dates and says, ‘This is the day,’ that’s not a joke and I wish social media companies were able to be more effective at ending that kind of thing because it does cause concern.”
Districtwide, school attendance was lower for Dec. 17, with around 60 percent of students in class at all buildings. The average this time of year, when colds and flu are circulating, is 90 percent or better, Martin said.
“Our students took the situation seriously and did not add to the stress of an already-stressful day on Friday,” said Perry County School District No. 32 superintendent Andy Comstock. “I’m grateful for the overwhelming cooperation we received in the situation, due to how quickly things had to change. We are appreciative of our local law enforcement officials as well. Their presence on campus didn’t go unnoticed. Everyone worked together to make sure our campus was safe.”
The last time students were scheduled to be in class prior to Christmas was a half day Wednesday, Dec. 22. School resumes Tuesday, Jan. 4.
The Perryville Police Department also issued a statement along with the school district Dec. 16.
“There is no credible threat to any Perryville school,” the release stated. “We want to make the public aware that many of the posts share similar wording or are duplicate posts not relating to verified threats.”
Police Chief Direk Hunt commented on the situation as well. “We take any threat to the safety of students and staff seriously,” Hunt said in the Dec. 16 statement. “We will continue to be present in our school zones. In addition, as a precautionary measure we will provide extra patrols at all schools tomorrow. We want to urge everyone in the community to be extra vigilant this time of year, as it is stressful for many and an active shooter situation could occur anywhere. If you see something, say something to the appropriate authorities.”
The police department urged students, parents and community members to report concerns immediately to authorities or to the school instead of sharing any viral posts.
“Reporting the information to proper authorities will ensure the information gets to someone who can investigate it,” the release said. “Sharing the post on social media does not guarantee it will be received by authorities, and will likely increase anxiety, rumors, and miscommunication.”
Gasconade County, which is west of the St. Louis area, postponed all Dec. 16 activities as well as class for Friday, Dec. 17. “All extracurricular activities on campus have been canceled for tonight and tomorrow evening,” according to a Dec. 16 post shortly after 7 p.m. “School will not be in session tomorrow, December 17, 2021.”
