Police departments can get frustrated.
Nowhere does fake news spread more quickly than on social media. And adults, parents in particular, can be the worst of the offenders when it comes to things related to the safety of their children.
Gossip is gossip, of course. It can be annoying, frustrating, hurtful and a whole lot worse. But when the telephone game involves a police matter relating to their kids’ schools, it seems to take on a life of its own.
We saw it happen at East Aurora High School in the spring, when a few threats on a bathroom wall led to all sorts of disruptions, dramatic tweets and Facebook posts.
Police, of course, have to take any and all such incidents seriously. But it doesn’t help their job when parents jump on social media and begin spreading any scuttlebutt they’ve heard, some of which feeds into their own sense of self importance or beef with the school.
Many of these posts after the East Aurora incident, as I recall, declared how few precautions were being taken by the district to keep their children safe, when in fact the opposite was true as administrators jumped into action to have a plan in place on the Friday of the intended threat.
What this fake news really does, authorities will tell you, is spread panic. In this instance, more than 2,400 students stayed home from school after that East High incident, the highest number of absences ever recorded, according to officials.
The most recent incident occurred a few days ago at Metea Valley High School, where a bathroom wall threat and a couple of internet copycats created near hysteria among kids and parents.
All three threats were investigated by Aurora police and quickly determined to be of no credible risk to the school. But because of student and parent concerns the APD increased its presence on the far East Side campus for the remainder of the week. And in an email sent out about the incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday, Metea Valley Principal Darrell Echols encouraged parents to speak to their kids about the seriousness of making threats or sharing threats on social media, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity to adults.
But how about a message to parents telling them to think twice before they put their own reporting out there, especially when it does little else but feed the fire and make kids more afraid?
According to District 204, 1,900 students were absent from their classrooms at Metea Valley – nearly two-thirds of enrollment – on Thursday, no doubt much of that fueled by the hysteria on social media.
Aurora police say since last Monday’s incident, a large number of rumors and fake social media posts and fake pictures continue to be shared on social media by both students and parents.
“Again, the Aurora Police Department has determined that there is no credible threat to the Metea Valley High School community,” APD insisted in a written statement, “and the only threats found were written on the bathroom walls.”
It’s certainly not news itself that more and more people use social media platforms to communicate the good, the bad and the ugly. The public, always on the prowl for more information, now expects it ASAP. And they believe most of what they read, as quickly as they get it … and retweet it.
On Thursday, administrators at Kaneland High School were made aware of a social media posting involving a student in possession of a firearm. There was, according to an email blast sent out to parents that afternoon, “never a threat of violence towards students or staff regarding this firearm.”
Still, because of that post, the school immediately instituted a “hold-in-place” protocol for security purposes for 20 minutes before law enforcement arrived and gave the all-clear.
Law enforcement works to be timely, accurate and responsive, but because “everything is so right-now … it’s hard to keep up,” said Kane County Undersheriff Patrick Gengler. “We are trying to get the information out there as fast as we can but until we know what we are dealing with, social media fills the gap.”
While it’s understandable that people want to know what’s going on, especially when their kids are involved in this hyper-alert era involving school violence, he added, residents need to refrain from speculation and give law enforcement, who are working a fluid situation, a chance to take a breath before putting out the facts.
Don’t get me wrong, police will be the first to tell you how much they depend upon social media to help dispense important information that not only helps them fight crime but humanizes them and builds stronger relationships with the public.
But keep in mind all you frantic, worried parents, even with the best of intentions you can cause more alarm than good when you jump on Twitter or that community Facebook group and add your misinformed or exaggerated two cents.
Report suspicious posts directly to the APD or school officials, the press release stated, before closing with this final plea: “Please do not share on social media.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
