PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia School District and many others in our area are warning parents of a social media trend encouraging students to post threats of school violence.
School districts all over the country will have increased police presence on Friday. This is in response to a viral TikTok trend that encourages students to make threats of violence against their school.
Many dangerous TikTok "challenges" have gone viral before, from eating Tide Pods to climbing stacks of milk crates. But this one might be the worst yet. KYW Newsradio would not normally report on an unsubstantiated threat, but the number of schools involved and the public messages from school districts make this an unusual situation.
Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted that he has spoken with police and Homeland Security, and there are no specific, credible threats anywhere in New Jersey.
New Jersey acting Director of Homeland Security and Preparedness Laurie Doran says they can’t be everywhere, so they rely on citizens to say something if they see something. Tips can be submitted anonymously at tips@njohsp.gov.
Philadelphia schools Superintendent William Hite says there have been no credible threats of violence in city schools Friday connected to TikTok, but he says threats over social media have risen since students returned to schools in person.
"It's been something that we've seen an increase in this year," Hite said. "The utilization of social media to make anonymous threats like that, that just begin to serve to create a level of anxiety in and around schools.”
Districts in the Philadelphia suburbs are also being extra vigilant. Officials in West Chester, Lower Moreland and Upper Moreland have warned parents about the threat as well.
Upper Dublin Superintendent Steven Yanni told NBC 10 that police are investigating a threat in his district.
"I’m not sure that students always know the ramifications of their actions," Yanni said.
"And I think it's incumbent upon families and school officials to help them understand that something that they might mimic from a TikTok challenge, or something they might mimic from social media, can have really grave consequences."
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So how does something so vile spread so easily? TikTok says it’s working with law enforcement but has apparently not found any evidence this so-called challenge originated or spread on its social media platform.