COPYCAT THREATS

Mass. students call in, snap warnings of school attacks

Police scrambled to schools in Rockland, Bridgewater and Fall River as chilling copycat attack threats rattled students and educators in a scene played out across the country in the wake of the massacre in south Florida.

Two of those menacing warnings were posted on the social media platform Snapchat and included a pledge of a “Florida part 2,” police said.

Metal detec- tors were used at B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River yesterday and bags were checked due to one of the Snapchat posts. Fall River police said they are investigating the case, and undercover cops were added to beef-up security.

The other Snapchat scare ended with a 17-year-old arrested in Bridgewater. He was charged with making terroristic threats to Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School, disturbing an assembly and car theft, police said.

His “Florida part 2” warning also included a “photo of a person holding what appeared to be a semi-automatic pistol,” police added. He is being held without bail pending a juvenile court hearing Tuesday.

Two freshmen, 14 and 15, were arrested for allegedly making threats at Rockland High School. Those alleged threats were called in to a TV news station, police said. All schools in the town were ordered to have everyone shelter in place.

But the Bay State is not alone. Educators have been jittery from coast to coast for the last few days.

The killing of 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday by a former student triggered an endless stream of worry.

The Nutley, N.J., school system was shut down after a parent reported seeing a video posted of a student firing a gun. Nothing came of that report.

A community college near Seattle went into lockdown after a false report of shots fired. Officers in Georgia and Florida also raced to similar reports. Threats in South Portland, Maine, and Exeter, N.H., also required police help.

The slaughter of so many innocent kids and their brave teachers and coaches has sent a collective chill through every classroom in the country.

“School leaders should take all threats seriously,” said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. “But you just can’t panic. Regrettably, this is not uncommon.”

Koocher said copycats just want “satisfaction in scaring people.”

What educators can do, he added, is “protect kids first and do the best they can.”

Kristine Camacho, of the Massachusetts School Psychologists Association, said sometimes the kids acting out could be sending a message.

“I think anytime a student makes a threat, they are trying to communicate to other students, parents and teachers that there is a need for help,” Camacho added.

Yet, she stressed, any threat could be all too real.

‘I think anytime a student makes a threat, they are trying to communicate to other students, parents and teachers that there is a need for help.’ — KRISTINE CAMACHO Massachusetts School Psychologists Association