Georgia school shooting may have been an "impetus" for Pittsburgh-area threats, FBI says
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Security is top of mind in school districts across Western Pennsylvania.
FBI Pittsburgh said social media threats have targeted more than a dozen local school districts this week, resulting in lockdowns, closures and a 10-year-old student facing felony charges.
Amid the threats, FBI Pittsburgh's Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek described the last 48 to 72 hours as a rapid response.
"We've seen and I've been briefed on at least 14 threats just within the last 48 hours," he said.
School districts in the Pittsburgh area are dealing with the cascading effects of these online threats of violence.
"Schools closing, after-school events being canceled, sporting events being canceled and just the general fear throughout the public," Rojek said.
Late on Wednesday, the Shaler Township Police Department said it identified the person responsible for a "social media post indicating that school shootings will occur at various school districts in Allegheny County." A 10-year-old girl had been charged with a felony count of terroristic threats and a misdemeanor count of harassment.
"And talking with one of her family members," Shaler Police Chief Sean Frank said on Thursday, "I'm not sure if it was her father or not, she was told that those schools were on lockdown yesterday because of the other incident. So, that's why she chose the schools that she did."
"When you have someone that young, you have to think of parental guidance or lack of," he added.
Data from The Educator's School Safety Network shows a surge in student arrests linked to threats following a high-profile shooting. Rojek said the FBI is still looking into any connection between the Georgia school shooting last week and the threats locally.
"There's a good possibility that the school shooting in Georgia was at least part of the impetus for these," Rojek said.
The FBI wants to spread the word to parents and caregivers about what their children should and should not do if they come across one of these threats on social media.
"We've seen threats that particularly juveniles are reposting, and we want to get the message out that it's not helpful when students are reposting threats that they're seeing online," Rojek said. "They should just let their parents know or let the schools know and then have them reported to local police. And it'll be investigated appropriately. But reposting them tends to just cause more fear throughout the community."
Reposting can make it harder for investigators to trace back to the original poster and can encourage copycats, authorities said.