Police in three North Texas towns arrested students this week for making threats against their schools. The arrests come after a nationwide wave of school threats tied to the social media app TikTok, but police are not linking the local threats directly to that national trend.
Police in Frisco arrested seven students during the past week.
"Our ongoing investigations may lead to more arrests in the future," wrote Frisco Police Chief David Shilson in a statement posted on-line. "Among the arrests were Middle School students who are learning a painful lesson at too young of an age."
He also had a message for students.
"You must understand social media challenges that include this type of destructive behavior are not are not ok by you," he wrote.
Police in Rockwall arrested one student on Friday who is accused of sending text messages with pictures of a simulated firearm and threats to shoot at a school.
In Lewisville, police arrested three students on Friday accused of making and spreading threats on the social media app Snapchat. All three are juveniles. Police do not believe the threats were credible.
Police say one student created the phony threats on Snapchat and is facing four misdemeanor counts of making a terroristic threat. They say two other students used the same app to spread the postings. Both of those students are facing one count each of felony terroristic threats.
Former Dallas ISD Police Chief Craig Miller has dealt with kids who have posted online threats. He says in many cases, the students are competing to see who can gather the most followers.
"What kids need to understand is that in Texas, a terroristic threat is a felony-third," he told KRLD.
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