Local school districts relieved as a Tik Tok threat of ‘national shoot up your school day’ ends with no shootings

Published: Dec. 17, 2021 at 6:19 PM CST
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WACO, Texas (KWTX)-- A viral social media post threatening bombings and shootings at schools nationwide Friday turned out to not be credible.

As the last school bell rang marking the end of the school day and the end of the semester Friday, parents, school administrators and students all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“I feel like they did good because nothing happened,” said Waco Highschool Senior Xzavier Garcia.

Schools across the country were on high alert Friday after a viral Tik Tok challenge claimed today would be ‘National Shoot Up Your School Day’.

School officials say as social media platforms develop they are also developing their methods of monitoring threats and other concerning activities on social media.

“We do monitor social media,” said Alice Jauregui. “We do subscribe to a media monitoring service and we can do searches based on certain keywords,” she said.

Students at various school districts reported noticing increased security presence Friday.

School administrators are urging parents and students to avoid sharing any threats they see online even if it’s just to warn others.

They also say parents should remind students of the consequences of making threats even if its just a joke.

“There are criminal charges that can be brought against them and then on the administrative side we have disciplinary actions that we can take as well,” Jauregui said.

In the last few weeks since the deadly shooting at Oxford High school in Michigan, several Central Texas school districts have received shooting threats that were later found to be not credible.

School officials say parents and students should immediately report any threats they see to the school district or to police.

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