Police increase patrols at schools around the state in response to nationwide TikTok message
Police departments around the state said they they've been keeping a close eye on schools in the wake of nationwide school threats.
By Rob Polansky, Matthew Campbell
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Connecticut (WFSB) — Police departments around the state said they they’ve been keeping a close eye on schools in the wake of nationwide school threats.
A number of districts, including Wallingford and New Milford Public Schools, said the reason was a social media message that popped up on TikTok.
The message read “praying for people who go to school on December 17.”
It’s important to note that right now, there is no indication there’s any truth to these warnings.
University of New Haven psychology professor Melissa Whitson says some social media users know this is an easy way to go viral and, unfortunately, even if their video is a well intentioned warning, it could be making for a bigger problems.
“A lot of it is about clout, how many views you get,” Whitson explained.
Just searching December 17 comes up with a lot of videos with a vague warning of a threat. No location is ever specified, but they are racking up thousands and thousands of views, being shared all over the country, and essentially creating panic over something that many local police departments are saying isn’t credible.
“While our discussions with the Wallingford Police Department indicate that there is no credible evidence of a specific threat, we take all such matters seriously and are instituting the following precautions for our schools,” said superintendent Danielle Bellizzi, Wallingford Public Schools.
Bellizzi said there would be more police patrolling the town’s schools through Friday.
“It has come to our attention that there is a national TikTok message regarding the threat of school shootings in America on Dec. 17,” said Alisha DiCorpo, superintendent, New Milford Public Schools. “This threat is not specific to New Milford Public Schools, but nonetheless, we take matters of safety very seriously.”
DiCorpo said there would be an increased police presence at New Milford schools out of an abundance of caution.
She said the district is working to help students make good choices when it comes to social media posts and asked parents to speak to their children about the impact social media posts can have.
“There will be zero tolerance of these types of actions,” DiCorpo said. “You can begin the conversation by helping children understand the seriousness of these types of threats, and also reminding children that any threat that is made against the schools and school district will be met with serious consequences, up to and including expulsion from school and possible legal action for making threats.”
Southington police said they also increased their presence at Southington High School on Thursday, despite there not being a new threat.
They said a threat from Monday was found to not be credible.
“Out an abundance of caution, there will be an added police presence in and around Southington High School for the remainder of the week and school counselors are available if students need to talk to anyone,” said Mike Crocco, principal, Southington High School, in a letter to the school community.
“We have about fifty percent of our students absent,” said superintendent Steven Madancy, Southington Public Schools.
That’s Thursday and that’s because of the threat that was found on Monday, which had been written on a bathroom wall.
“[What did it say?] School shooting on 12/16,” Madancy stated.
Police are still looking into it.
“It was investigated. Nothing was substantiated. There were no further threats. No new information we could get from it,” noted Madancy.
Naugatuck police said on Thursday that while they hadn’t been made aware of a specific threat against schools, they’ve also been patrolling.
They said the public can anticipate their added presence to increase the community sense of safety during the coming school days.
Connecticut State Police recently revealed that many of the threats they looked into statewide stemmed from a social media trend.
They also said the threats tended to be unfounded.
However, they said anyone found to have been behind them would face consequences.
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