TikTok School Shooting Threat: Joliet Schools Take Precautions

JOLIET, IL — There will be an added Joliet police presence at Joliet West High School and Joliet Central High School on Friday morning as the result of a nationwide December TikTok challenge that reportedly encourages teenagers to threaten school violence on Friday, Dec. 17.

"We are aware of the Tik-Tok post," Joliet District 204 director of community and alumni relations Kristine Schlismann replied to Joliet Patch in an email. "Out of an abundance of caution, there will be an additional police presence tomorrow at both campuses, and we will conduct additional searches."

District 204 also sent out an email to parents and staff on Thursday afternoon that included the following additional information: "While there is no reason at all to believe that this threat circulated from anyone in our schools or community, this is a good reminder to talk about the importance of reporting threats and the consequences related to making threats. We ask parents to take a moment to discuss the topic of school threats with their student and pledge as a family to both report threats to the proper authorities and refrain from sharing rumored threats and unverified information with others.

"Every member of a school community is responsible for its safety. As always, we encourage everyone to “Say Something” if they “See Something.” There are many ways to notify us such as reaching out to a staff member, calling the school, using the Contact Us feature on the jths.org website, or emailing info@jths.org. You can also report concerns anonymously to the School Violence Tip Line by calling 1-800-477-0024.

"The safety of our students and staff is always our first priority. We thank you for working in partnership to keep our school safe."

On Thursday, Patch reported that multiple law enforcement agencies across the country say they are monitoring reports of a TikTok challenge that has encouraged students to threaten gun violence at their schools on Friday, Dec. 17.

Some school districts across the nation say they have been "inundated" with questions about the social media school violence rumors, and have responded in letters to parents and public statements in the days leading up to Friday.

While it's unclear where the December 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."

School officials in Maryland told Patch that "We have been in contact with county police and the Maryland Center for School Safety," AACPS spokesman Bob Mosier said in an email. "While there appears to be no credibility to any threat at this time and, to be clear, there are no threats mentioning any of our schools, we are remaining in contact with our law enforcement partners as we do on a regular basis."