App logos for Facebook, left, and X, formerly known as Twitter, are seen on a mobile phone in Los Angeles, Saturday, March 16, 2024. The Supreme Court is taking up a dispute Monday, March 18, between Republican-led states and the Biden administration over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics like COVID-19 and election security. The case involves posts on Facebook, X and other media platforms. (AP Photo/Paula Ulichney)
Law enforcement officials are raising concerns about local residents and others posting and sharing unverified information on social media after a wave of false rumors were spread online as local police investigated a threat directed at an elementary school late last week.
The wave of false information circulating on social media included unfounded claims of threats against Northside Middle School and Schmitt Elementary School, as well as false rumors about Columbus North High School and Columbus East High School being placed on lockdown on Monday.
The posts came as Columbus police continued their investigation into a shooting threat made on Snapchat against Parkside Elementary School on Friday. Columbus police over the weekend said the threat was not credible and later took a 11-year-old female into custody on a felony charge of intimidation and a misdemeanor charge of false informing for the threat.
The threat led to an increased police presence at all Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. schools on Monday, as well as “dramatically less” attendance across the school corporation. according to BCSC officials.
On Tuesday morning, student resource officers were working with local schools to track down some of the sources behind the false information on social media and determine whether legal action should be taken, said Columbus Police Department spokesman Sgt. Skylar Berry.
“With a lot of false rumors coming through, we spend a lot of our time looking into those and verifying that they are false,” Berry said. “…The more rumors that are flying (around) and things like that, it can slow things down and overwhelm all of our resources. …Verifying information before you share it could have cut down on a lot of that.”
“That’s where it’s at right now,” Berry added later. “Our (student resource officers) are taking that information and looking through it with the schools.”
Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said he is concerned about the wave of false rumors.
“It is definitely concerning because what you end up finding yourself doing is reacting to social media on stuff that’s not accurate, and it seems like you have to work two or three times harder to prove the inaccuracies in some of this stuff that’s out there then actually focusing on what we need to be focusing on,” Lane said.
Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay said she was frustrated to see false information inciting what she described as “unnecessary fear and panic” and urged the public to evaluate the sources of the information they see on social media, especially sources who refuse to identify themselves. The best sources in the event of a school threat will be the school corporation and law enforcement, she said.
“I was frustrated with everything I saw being posted on social media both so as a prosecutor and more so as a parent,” Holden-Kay said.
While law enforcement and BCSC worked throughout the weekend to keep the public updated on the investigation, “simultaneously, we have others putting out information on social media that was completely false,” including rumors on Facebook “about shots fired at (Columbus) East High School and things like that, that were completely false,” Holden-Kay said.
“It just incited from my perspective a lot of unnecessary fear and panic and also creates a hardship on law enforcement who are trying to investigate this serious and concerning situation and they’re kind of having to be derailed to look into these other things that turn out to be completely false,” Holden-Kay said. “…It diverts resources away from where they need to be.”
“I think the most frustrating to me is the fact that we have law enforcement and a school corporation that actually handled this really well,” Holden-Kay added. “While we all should have been able to send our children to school (on Monday) with our minds at ease … instead, I know there were a ton of parents who chose not to sent their children to school because they’re attempting to wade through all of the false information that is being put on social media and try to make sense of what’s true and what’s not.”
Holden-Kay said as of Tuesday afternoon that no cases of people circulating false information on social media had been referred to her office but said she believes that some acts could potentially rise to the level of the crime of intimidation “depending on what is shared and how much the person who shared it or posted it knows about the truth of it.”
The concern over false rumors on social media comes as Parkside Elementary School joins a growing lists of schools in the United States where threats have been made over roughly the past week, as an epidemic of threats targeting students, disrupting schools and sapping law enforcement resources has swept across the country since a deadly shooting at a Georgia high school that killed four people on Sept. 4.
On Tuesday, two students were arrested for allegedly making school shooting threats in New Mexico, while other students were arrested on Tuesday for making similar threats against schools in Missouri and Virginia, according to media reports.
Last week, four juveniles in four different Tennessee counties were arrested after allegedly making online school threats, and at least three teenagers were arrested in Arizona last week for allegedly spreading false rumors about school violence or guns on campuses.
Indiana schools were no exception.
Last week, at least seven juvenile students were arrested in Terre Haute for allegedly making threats throughout the Vigo County School Corp., according to Fox 59.
In Jeffersonville, police charged a 12-year-old middle school student over a social media post that claimed there would be a school shooting. Jeffersonville police also have submitted evidence to arrest another child and are investigating adults who shared some of the social media posts.
Whitko Community Schools in northeast Indiana were closed Tuesday after receiving a threat, according to a message on the school corporation’s website.
Similar threats also have been made over roughly the past week against schools in Anderson, Evansville, Indianapolis, Lafeyette, Marion, Mount Vernon, Richmond, South Bend, among other places in Indiana.
BCSC said in a statement over the weekend that it was aware of the recent increase in reports on social media involving screenshots of threats of violence.
“The unfounded rumors spread through social media have got to stop,” BCSC Superintendent Chad Phillips said earlier this week. “We are asking parents and guardians to talk to your kids about what they should and should not do if they were to see a threatening message on social media. They should talk to the parent or guardian, talk to a school staff member or administrator, or contact law enforcement directly. They should not amplify the message by posting, sharing, liking — fill-in your social media action.”
Phillips continued, “And if students amplify a threatening message that results in a disruption to school, that student will face severe consequences at school, up to including suspension and expulsion. Today, (Monday) there are hundreds of kids who have had their educational experience disrupted because of social media spreading rumors, and that is happening all across the country.”
Local law enforcement said investigating online threats takes time, as investigators have to track down the source of the threat, which can involve sending search warrants to social media companies to search social media accounts and, in some cases, physical searches of suspects’ electronic devices.
Lane said law enforcement have to do their due diligence and conduct a thorough investigation in case there is probable cause that a crime was committed and they need to present evidence to the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s office to review for potential criminal charges.
“Obviously, a lot of that just can’t be done in a few clicks,” Lane said. “…When you’re looking at social media, for example, or getting information from Facebook or Snapchat or TikTok or whatever, we don’t just send a request in and then immediately get that information back from them. There are court orders that have to be sometimes put into place, search warrants and that sort of stuff. We send that to these social media companies, and then even at that, it’s not like you get it back instantaneously. It can take weeks, sometimes even months, for them to get that information back to us.”
Berry, for his part, said Columbus police were “fortunate” that they were able to identify the individual who made the threat against Parkside over the weekend and “take the appropriate action.” Berry said that CPD received a search warrant for the juvenile suspect’s social media account.
“I think it’s important to remember with social media (is) that it can be a really good thing,” Berry said. “A lot of us use it. The police department uses it. It allows people to connect with a bunch of people that they may not have been able to otherwise. …But things also get shared very quickly, especially things that may not be true.”
“We try to keep the public as well-informed as we can and update them on our investigation, but it doesn’t happen immediately, as quickly as the information is shared on social media,” Berry added.
