School districts around New York struggled to increase security on Friday, while others decided to go the distance in response to the latest violent TikTok challenge – “National Shoot Up Your School Day.”
New York City School Chancellor Meisha Porter warned city residents about the sick stunt, urging children to “call bomb threats, school shooting threats, etc.”
“Any threat to a school community is taken extremely seriously, and we are working closely with the NYPD to investigate threats to any school community,” Porter wrote in an email Friday morning.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All schools in the Pelham district closed for personal learning “of an abundance of caution” Friday after a specific threat was made on Snapchat targeting Pelham Memorial High School, according to a warning sent out to the district. The details of the threat were unclear. Nor was it clear whether the message was specifically related to the online challenge.
In Nassau County, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said police would check into classrooms in the district’s 450 buildings during the day, but that no schools had been closed.
“‘All schools in the United States will be targeted on December 17,” Ryder said according to ABC 7. “‘ Stay safe. Stay home. ‘ “It’s gone viral. We’ll be out there visiting every single one of our schools.”
Up in central New York, several school districts warned parents of the potential danger and said they were adding extra police to schools Friday, according to Syracuse.com.
At least six other New York districts, three in the Capitol and three near Buffalo, also switched to distance learning in response to the online challenge, reports say.
.
Post a Comment