Viral TikTok trend threatens violence in schools across the US today

A disturbing TikTok trend threatening violence across American schools has gone viral, with students and parents being asked to report posts to law enforcement and not to share them further.

The anonymous social media threat has suggested that acts of violence could take place on Friday 17 December in schools across the country.

The posts, which ABC2 said are believed to have originated in Arizona, encourage students to stay home that day.

Several school districts and police departments across the country have responded by releasing statements assuring communities that no credible threats have been identified.

The threat comes just over two weeks after the US was rocked by its worst school shooting since 2018.

In Florida, the Citrus County School District released a statement on Thursday addressing the rumours and urging parents and students not to promote the social media post further.

“This morning we’ve seen an increase in rumors on social media regarding a national school threat post that has gone viral,” read the statement, posted on the district’s Facebook page.

“It seems students, along with parents, are either sharing a post or manipulating the original post to reflect a new threat at a specific school. This is creating disruption at many of our schools today.

“Because of this, many of our schools are being inundated with parent calls this morning asking about these latest threats and their validity.”

The district urged people to report any specific threats to law enforcement rather than reposting them.

“We are not only asking students but parents as well, to report any information of a specific threat to law enforcement immediately – DO NOT repost on social media.”

As of Thursday morning, the district said it had not received “any indication of a credible threat to any of our schools” and its schools will be open as usual on Friday.

It added that the critical alert system was activated at one school – Crystal River High School – on Thursday morning due to a medical emergency involving a student which had “nothing to do with a threat of any kind”.

However, the district acknowledged that the online threats meant this incident had “created a heightened sense of concern at all of our schools”.

Over in Illinois, the Glenview Police Department also addressed the nationwide threat on its Twitter page.

“The Glenview Police Department is aware of a threat circulating on social media regarding ... threats at every school in the country on Friday, December 17, 2021,” the statement said.

The police department said the threat does not specifically list any state or location and that no credible threat had been found.

Law enforcement officers will patrol school grounds as usual on Friday and people are encouraged to “remain vigilant”.

TikTok said in a series of tweets that despite detailed searches, it had found “nothing”.

“We’ve exhaustively searched for content that promotes violence at schools today, but have still found nothing. What we find are videos discussing this rumor and warning others to stay safe,” the company wrote.

“Local authorities, the FBI, and DHS have confirmed there’s no credible threat, so we’re working to remove alarmist warnings that violate our misinformation policy. If we did find promotion of violence on our platform, we’d remove and report it to law enforcement.

“Media reports have been widespread and based on rumours rather than facts, and we are deeply concerned that the proliferation of local media reports on an alleged trend that has not been found on the platform could end up inspiring real world harm.”