Social Media threats and school: The scramble to balance safety, justice

The Snapchat post showed several guns and warned @MHS students not to go to school the next day. It spread so quickly in January that it sparked investigations in at least 30 states at schools that share those initials, until police in Virginia arrested a juvenile and declared it a hoax.

Since the February shooting in Parkland, Fla., school districts have faced a predictable spike in such threats. Some real plans to do harm have been thwarted as alert students, parents, and citizens speak up. In many more cases, threats have not been genuine. But no one wants to miss warning signs that could prevent the next school shooting.

Increasingly, those “signs” are coming through young people’s communications via social media – a realm where it can be particularly difficult to tell the difference

Banned from Internet before trialBlurry legal lines Trust-building plays a role