Five kids charged with separate social-media threats

Five Ontario tweens and teens have been charged with threatening schools on social media as part of a “spike” in threats that followed last month’s school shooting in Florida, provincial police said Tuesday.

Sgt. Peter Leon said officers conducted six separate investigations in the province’s central division, starting shortly after the Feb. 14 massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed.

“We started to see a spike in them,” Leon said. “Unfortunately when events take place south of the border ... we do start to see situations present themselves here in Ontario.”

Five people between the ages of 12 and 17 were charged with uttering threats. Four of the five were students at the schools they’re accused of threatening and the other was a former student, Leon said. Police did not arrest a sixth because the person was too young to face charges.

Most of the investigations occurred in areas overseen by the Nottawasaga, Collingwood and Barrie detachments of the force but the problem is pervasive and extends beyond the province, Leon said.

On Monday, for instance, police in Bathurst, N.B., announced they had arrested three people after social media threats sent two schools into lockdown.

Leon said, said that kids might be making such Instagram posts in an effort to gain followers.

“I can assure you posting an image of a firearm with threatening words following it is not the right way to go about doing things,” Leon said.

“We just want the public and young children and young people to know: If they do something like this, they will be held accountable.”