Students Threatening Schools Could Face Expulsion, Arrest: Police

OSWEGO, IL — As school districts and police departments nationwide are responding to a TikTok challenge encouraging students to threaten gun violence at their schools Friday, Oswego police and school officials are warning students of the serious consequences of threatening violence.

"Creating or sharing messages that are threatening in nature can result in very serious consequences from both the school and law enforcement," reads a message from Oswego School District 308 and the Oswego Police Department shared Thursday afternoon. "Students may face expulsion and if police establish probable cause, they will make arrests."

On Monday, in a separate incident, a 17-year-old Oswego East High School student was arrested after police said he made a verbal threat while in a school classroom. Before being taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct, police said he was removed from the classroom and sent home.

RELATED: Student Charged After Verbally Threatening Oswego East High: Cops

Oswego police were among multiple law enforcement agencies across the country monitoring the rumors of violence threatening "every school in the USA" Friday. Although it's not clear where the threat originated, a Utah school district issued a news release saying the threat started as a way for students to skip school, Patch reported.

Police and school officials in Oswego are asking students who see threatening messages to share the information with a trusted adult, as opposed to spreading posts on social media and "perpetuating fear." They're also encouraging parents to talk to their children about the effects of behavior on social media.

"The school district will be monitoring, investigating, and holding individuals responsible for their actions," reads the message, signed by Superintendent of School John Sparlin and Chief of Police Jeffrey R. Burgner. "School safety is the district’s highest priority, and both police and the school district will not tolerate any threat, or any spread of fear by forwarding threatening messages."

When it comes to seeing threatening content online, Oswego officials said that although most students don't intend to conduct acts of violence at school, they don't realize they're still responsible for forwarding and sharing related messages.

"Students might consider social media an innocent or anonymous platform, it is neither," Sparlin and Burgner said. "In most cases students are not the originator of an inappropriate message, however, if they forward it, that perpetuates fear and a disruption in schools."

Officials said school administrators, along with police, spend countless hours investigating reports in order to keep schools safe, and that's time taken from improving student learning.

The reports of the December TikTok challenge threatening school violence come after a string of monthly challenges — including September's "Devious Licks" — stemming from the video-sharing platform.