School threats spread panic

Platforms including Snapchat, Facebook frequently spark fear

An anonymous threat this year that bombs had been planted at a handful of Jefferson County schools, and were set to detonate randomly the following day, led authorities to search more than 35 campuses for explosives. They found none.

Those Feb. 5 threats against schools in Golden and Arvada, reported to Colorado’s Safe2Tell network, came via disguised internet addresses that investigators traced to locations outside the country, and were serviced by a subsidiary of “a large United States-based social media company,” according to Jefferson County sheriff’s records.

Though investigators declined to identify the social network involved in that case, police and school administrators in Colorado say they’re increasingly dealing with threats that can spread uncontrolled over social-media platforms such as Snapchat and Facebook, causing panic and consternation among children and parents.

“These threats are happening constantly,” said John McDonald, executive director of the Jefferson County School District’s safety and security team. “We’re never surprised when we get them. It’s become normal, and that’s disappointing.”

As police and school administrators try to navigate the emotional toll that threats shared

through social media can have in a classroom environment, experts said they have no choice but to treat each reported threat as if it was the real deal — until proved otherwise.

Aurora police are still investigating a violent threat that a Cherokee Trail High School student received Monday through Snapchat from someone they said was overseas that caused panic and chaos among students and parents in the Cherry Creek School District. Earlier in the month, a Snapchat photo of a student with a gun in his waistband prompted Aurora police to swarm Rangeview High School, and later detain a student off campus who had a BB gun with him.

The Aurora Police Department doesn’t track how often crimes or threats stem from social-media platforms, so there aren’t hard numbers illustrating how often these types of investigations are happening. But Sgt. Bill Hummel, a spokesman for the department, can speak about the situation from experience.

“I can say with certainty we are seeing such an increase in reported calls for service, crimes and the facilitation of crimes via social media,” Hummel said. “We’re certainly seeing an increase in the number of school threats.”

“A race against the clock”

In the week after the shooting at Florida’s Parkland High School in February that left 17 people dead, Safe2Tell — the hotline for students to anonymously report threats or concerns — saw a 51 percent increase in calls, with a spike in reports of planned school attacks.

McDonald’s cellphone is full of screenshots of threats that students in his district have received. The most common include ominous, vague warnings such as “don’t come to school tomorrow,” pictures of guns or references to “doing a Columbine.”

After the 1999 Columbine High School tragedy — in which two students killed 12 others and a teacher — made Jefferson County School District the backdrop for one of the first major shooting rampages of the modern era, McDonald said there is no choice but to take every threat reported seriously.

“It can be a real challenge because in some cases, you have very little information to go on and it’s a race against the clock before the next school day to work with law enforcement to identify who the student is,” McDonald said. “It ramps up so fast.”

Spokesman Doug Schepman of the Denver Police Department said that even without a screenshot — a picture that captures the image on the screen of a phone or computer — law enforcement is able to recover deleted Snapchat messages to help them investigate threats.

By the time screenshots of a threat start spreading through high school social networks and make their way to parents’ eyes, a threat — whether later proven unfounded or not — already has wreaked havoc. Schools, districts and police departments often send out updates to worried parents who are calling police and the learning institutions desperately seeking more information.

The day after a threat, McDonald said the Jeffco district will see as much as a 25 percent decrease in attendance from parents deciding it isn’t safe to send their kids to school.

Gary Ramey, dad to 16year-old Cherokee Trail student Isabella Ramey, was supportive of his daughter staying home from school Tuesday when he said there was little information in the morning about whether the threat from the night before was credible or not.

The father saw screenshots circulated by students at his daughter’s high school — pictures of guns with menacing, violent warnings directed at the school attached.

The Cherry Creek School District posted on its website that Aurora police deemed the threat not credible, adding: “We also ask that you talk with your children about responsible social media use. Spreading rumors and reposting threatening messages on social media can exasperate an already tense situation and create panic in the community.”

Gary Ramey thought this messaging was inappropriate and encouraged students to keep potential threats to themselves. Police originally said they determined the Snapchat threat came from outside the United States, but didn’t know the exact source yet.

Ramey thought school should have been canceled until everything was certain. The threat to the Jefferson County schools in February also was traced outside the country, and though the unnamed social media company cooperated with investigators, sheriff’s officials say the case was closed “after exhausting all available leads.” Jefferson County sheriff’s officials declined to release the full report in that case because they said it contained “investigative keys.”

“We’re all just scared”

For Isabella Ramey, this week’s Cherokee Trail threat seemed all too real.

“Yesterday when I went back to school, I was still on edge,” she said. “Something could still happen. It was just overall really stressful, and I feel like the school has a different feel now. People aren’t lingering too long in the hallways. We’re all just scared, and there’s not really anything anyone can do about it to fix it.”

Even if the threat was a “goofball comment” proven to be unfounded, McDonald said the terror and confusion people on the receiving end feel and spread to others is not a joking matter. Students can get in serious trouble with the law, and at school, that can have lasting consequences.

“Even though it’s a crime that’s committed on social media … we’re still able to track these people down, and we are certainly committed to holding people accountable and responsible for these acts,” Hummel said.

A Colorado law exists that allows courts to charge people for interfering with staff, faculty or students of an educational institution — a law McDonald said is exercised frequently in these kinds of cases. Students can face arrest and court time, and in the Jefferson County School District, they also undergo a “threat assessment” if they’re allowed back on school grounds.

After knocking on families’ doors at 2 a.m. trying to investigate menacing Snapchat messages before school begins the next day, McDonald is glad the law is an option so students realize how their actions have serious consequences.

“The threat of our time is here,” McDonald said. “It’s on our doorstep. We see and hear about school shootings and mass tragedy all over the country, and then I’m dealing with it at an individual school, and the response to it is so important. It has a way of changing your climate and culture if you don’t get ahead of it.”