TikTok Threat Puts Massachusetts Parents On Edge

MASSACHUSETTS — Some Massachusetts parents spent Friday morning wrestling with the decision of whether to send their kids to school. Others huddled with their teenagers over smartphones, scrolling through TikTok and looking for threats that shook school systems across the country this week. Others took to the more familiar Facebook to discuss the chill a social media prank gone wrong had cast over their families.

There were no major incidents reported at Massachusetts schools Friday, the day students were encouraged students to threaten gun violence at their schools as part of the latest TikTok challenge. There was, however, a visible police presence outside many schools, while inside there were more empty desks than usual after parents kept kids home.

"I have all faith in her school's staff and Auburn Police, but as history has shown us time and time again, it only takes one person. Just one to take it too far," said Erin McIntyre, who kept her third-grader home Friday but did not tell her daughter why. "She thinks it’s hang out with mom and baby brother day. Movies and pizza. I’ll take it over a day filled with anxiety. It is not worth it."

In some districts, those absences will not be excused. "Given this is not a credible threat and did not originate here or anywhere near here, absences will not be excused," Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said in a note.

In a tweet, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it did not "have any information indicating any specific, credible threats to schools but recommends communities remain alert." But McIntyre and other parents worried even without actual violence, school would be tough on Friday.

"I also want to protect her from the obvious chatter that would be circulating the school all day long," McIntyre said. "I would not want her being there and have any type of feelings of being unsafe."

While it's unclear where the rumor originated, a news release issued by the Tooele County School District in Utah said the original threat started as a way for students to skip school, but "morphed into something much more disturbing."

TikTok said it is working with law enforcement to look into the warnings. In Twitter posts on Friday, the company said it had not found content promoting violence at schools but found videos discussing the rumor and warning others to stay safe.

Many parents only learned of the threat Thursday, when scores of Massachusetts superintendents sent home notes outlining the threat and the security measures being put in place. Most of the notes stressed there had been no specific threats to the district.

The post most widely associated with Friday’s fears is "not really a threat, it’s just saying they are hearing this thing is happening," said Justin Patchin, a criminal justice professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.

How to respond to that presents a dilemma both to TikTok and educators, especially since many of the previous panics about TikTok challenges have proven to be bogus and acknowledging them can make them more influential.

"It definitely puts schools in a tough spot," said Patchin, whose center has worked with TikTok and other social media companies in the past to research online bullying. "There are these potential threats they can't ignore, but they also can’t shut down schools every time someone posts a generalized threat on social media."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.