Threats of violence have sparked chaos at dozens of schools in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs since the beginning of the school year, leading to lockdowns, security screenings and days of remote learning.
Over the past two weeks, a series of anonymous posts circulating on social media have warned of shootings and other acts of violence at local schools. Police department officials say that most of these threats have not been found to be credible after investigation. However, they have had a significant impact on the daily lives of students across the Chicago area, causing school closures and widespread panic among parents on social media.
These recent threats reflect a nationwide trend. Since the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, which killed two students and two teachers, “guns on campus and school shooting threats are erupting across the country,” according to a report by national advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Following the Apalachee shooting, at least four guns have been confiscated in Iowa schools alone, while school shooting threats have led to lockdowns in Florida and Georgia, among other states. At least seven minors have been arrested in Northern California for social media threats against schools.
Meanwhile, social media posts warning of shootings led to the closure of over 20 schools in the southwest suburbs of Chicago as students planned to return to class this Monday. The previous week had seen a wave of similar threats, which caused “soft lockdowns” across two school districts in the south suburbs. At least two Chicago Public Schools campuses have also been threatened.
“When gun violence is the No. 1 killer of children in America and our country is saturated in firearms, every single threat has to be taken seriously,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy of Everytown for Gun Safety. “At the end of the day, whether threats are real or fake, it’s causing immense anxiety in communities across the country. We have to keep our focus on the root issue here, and that’s easy access to firearms. The best way to assess the severity of a school shooting threat is to know if there’s access to a gun.”
Since Sept. 4, threats of violence have targeted dozens of schools across Chicago and its suburbs. Most, but not all, have been linked to social media posts, while police investigations have usually resulted in a dismissal of the credibility of the threats. No actual violence linked to these digital claims has yet been found to have occurred.
Within the city of Chicago, two public schools on the Northwest Side have received online threats: William Howard Taft High School and Peter A. Reinberg Elementary School, which were made aware of threats against them on Sept. 5 and Sept. 8, respectively.
Both threats were confirmed to be noncredible by the Chicago Police Department, according to a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson. Police officers were dispatched to provide “additional safety support” during arrival and dismissal at both schools while the threats were under investigation.
“The District has been made aware of multiple threats recently made on social media posts, some mentioning the names of CPS schools,” wrote a CPS spokesperson in an email to the Tribune on Tuesday. “Every instance is taken very seriously. … The impacted school community is always notified of a threat and updated with a final communication once the matter has been fully investigated.”
Jayden Wright, who advocates against gun violence among teens as a member of national organization Project Unloaded’s Youth Council, said that he has noticed a widespread “desensitization” that is “taking a toll” on young people amid constant news of school shootings and gun threats in the media.
“These threats are really causing a division and making us, in a way, turn against each other, because we’re not sure who to trust, because we don’t know what families have access to these guns at home,” Wright said.
Wright grew up in Chicago, attending the Intrinsic Schools charter high school in Irving Park. His first experience with gun violence occurred when he was a sophomore, when another student was shot one morning during first period classes.
Since the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which 12 students and one teacher died and over 20 others were injured at the hands of two teenage gunmen, more than 380,000 students in the United States have experienced gun violence at school, according to data from The Washington Post.
Both threatened and actual violence at schools reflect a culture in which “we incorporate (guns) into our society and make it attainable for people to use and bring to school,” Wright said. With Project Unloaded, he is attempting to reform how young people view guns and gun ownership, he said.
High school was “pretty stress-free,” Wright said. “But when guns came into the equation, my attention and my priorities of where my stress should lie shifted as well, where I wasn’t only worried about studying for an upcoming test, I was worried about when I walked to school, ‘Is someone going to bring a weapon to school? Are we going to be OK? Is my school now going to be actually prepared?’”
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, hoax threats against schools tend to increase in frequency across the nation in the wake of mass school shooting events, such as at Apalachee. Posting false shooting threats to social media is a federal crime, with perpetrators potentially receiving up to five years in prison, according to the FBI.
Last week, in the northwest suburbs, local police received notice from the National Suicide Hotline about a potential threat against Bartlett High School, which led to the cancellation of after-school activities, according to the Bartlett Police Department.
The next day, in the western suburb of Hinsdale, a student at Hinsdale Middle School made a threat alluding to the possession of a weapon, although none was found. On Sept. 12, Rich Township High School District 227 and Park Forest-Chicago Heights District 163 in the south suburbs both went into a partial lockdown in response to “various” threats online, while a middle school in western suburban Geneva also received gun threats.
So far this week, threats have continued as students return for class, particularly in the southwest suburbs.
On Monday, all 21 schools in Joliet Public School District 86 switched to remote learning in response to threats on social media about students bringing weapons to class. The Joliet Police Department has since announced that it has arrested a 12-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl for their involvement with the threats, charging them all with felony disorderly conduct.
Nearby in Mokena, posts on social media threatened a school shooting at a junior high school, according to the Mokena Police Department. Meanwhile, Homer School District 33-C announced on its Facebook page Monday that it had also received online threats, suggesting that the threats proliferating throughout Will County schools may be connected.
“The social media post has been determined to be a recycled post which has recently impacted other area schools,” wrote Superintendent Craig Schoppe in the Facebook post.
By the end of the day on Monday, police departments in Joliet and Mokena, as well as the Will County sheriff’s office, all shared that no credible evidence to substantiate the threats had been found. Yet, even as students returned to class in person on Tuesday, “copycat” threats continued to circulate, according to a release by the Joliet Police Department.
Plainfield Central High School, another nearby school targeted, continued to have an increased police presence on Tuesday morning as students arrived due to the “unsubstantiated threat circulating on social media,” according to the Plainfield Police Department.
On Tuesday afternoon, officials from Joliet Public School District 86 released a letter advising parents to report any new posts directly to local police and avoid resharing them. They also wrote that parents should “continue to have conversations with (their) children about the importance of their words and actions, both in person and over social media, and the potential consequences for impacting the safety of others.”
Ade Osadolor-Hernandez, a volunteer leader at the University of Chicago with national advocacy group Students Demand Action, has been involved with gun control activism since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida in 2018. She said she believes that controlling access to guns is the only way to stop the constant fear of school shooting threats.
“Students like me deserve to go to school without the fear or threat of gun violence, but you can’t really feel far from that fear,” Osadolor-Hernandez said. “It’s become sort of a reality for all of us. I know that for me, at least, schooling has been disrupted by this constant fear of: Am I gonna get shot today? You know, where is the nearest exit in the classroom? So there’s a constant cycle of just fear and anxiety.”
