TEEN’S DEATH FEAR

Climate of fear created

A TEENAGER texted a friend saying “I’m going to die tomorrow” after a fellow Elanora State High School student told her he was planning a schoolyard shooting.

Although police said pupils were never in danger, the alleged threat led many parents to keep their children home from school. The incident has been linked to distress over bullying.

POLICE say school shootings in the United States have created a climate of fear, highlighted on the Gold Coast every time a threat is made against a local institute.

Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd said while these cases often turned out to be hoaxes by “silly children”, police were obliged to investigate them to their fullest.

“At what risk do we not pick those up and they manifest themselves into some real point of concern,” Mr Codd said.

“It’s a constant assessment battle for us. We take every case on its merits, but we do take them seriously … until such time that we have convinced ourselves that the threat is mitigated or doesn’t exist.

“Where we can that will be our posture into the future. It’s a reality of a world we live in, it’s one of the complexities of communications on social media, by particularly children and I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

He said police had to be careful around these incidents, so as not to lull the community into a false sense of security by publishing threats as constant hoaxes.

“We’re continually mindful of the notion of the appropriate messaging to parents and community members about the seriousness of potential threats, particularly against our schools,” he said.

Mr Codd said the incident at Elanora was quickly investigated and deemed not a threat.

“A matter was brought to our attention, it was immediately responded to and police very, very quickly were able to establish that there was no apparent risk associated with some messaging between students,” he said.