Many Massachusetts schools had an increased police presence on Friday following a vague threat that had been circulating nationally on the social media platform TikTok.
Some parents kept their children home for the day even though authorities, including the FBI Boston field office and Department of Homeland Security, deemed the threat not credible. The situation also brought up the need for families and schools to talk with children about social media and threats of violence.
“I've heard both parents saying ‘I'm not taking any risks, I'm not sending my student in today,’ or students themselves at the high school age saying, ‘You know, I'm not taking any risks either,’” said Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union.
Boston Public Schools said about three-quarters of kids came to school Friday, down 12% from attendance the day before.
Tang said educators were concerned as well.
“But educators, for the most part, we show up no matter the risks,” Tang said. “Our schools used to be considered safe places for students, and institutions where you could go and not have to worry about so many other things that you worry about in the larger community. And that is no longer the case. ... We have to wonder, why is TikTok such an influential platform right now? What does that say about the state of our social-emotional needs of our students?”
Mikell Taylor has two young children in the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District: a son in preschool and a daughter in first grade.
She said it was “quite jarring” to hear about the TikTok threat, but she and her husband decided to send their kids to school.
“There's no credible local threat that anybody can point to,” Taylor said. ”If we shut down every time somebody is saying horrible things on social media, we would never do anything. But at the same time, we know that parental instinct of, ‘Oh my god, but what if?’”
Taylor said she and many younger parents need help on how to talk to their children about threats of violence at school.
“I'm also just sort of dreading the first active shooter drill my daughter goes through,” said Taylor, “because after the first time she had a fire drill this year, you know, she was afraid of fires in our house for like two weeks after it and had trouble sleeping.”
Both Tang and Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, emphasized the need for guidance and support staff to help address the needs of students, educators and parents, not just around the spectre of school violence, but the ongoing and sometimes debilitating stress of the pandemic.
“At minimum, every single building needs a team of social workers, school psychologists, mental health experts, smaller class sizes so we can build relationships and more educational support professionals to help build those relationships,” Najimy said. “We're talking about building a community of connectedness so that kids don't feel they have to turn to dangerous and destructive behavior.”
Boston Public Schools this year added 78 family liaisons and 84 social workers to ensure that they are present in every school.
Natick Public Schools Superintendent Anna Nolin told GBH News that they beefed up their behavioral support staff prior to the pandemic. And she said they have an ongoing program to help students and parents understand concerns and problems around social media.
Nolin said she was on the phone late into the night on Thursday with parents, and made a point on Friday of visiting every school in her district with roughly 5,500 students. She said the effort paid off with a day that looked like “business as usual.”
“We had a lot of good conversations up front with our parents and we proactively communicated,” Nolin said. “I think that gives parents some ease. And we have such a robust partnership with our school resource officers and our police department that they were there to assist us and to be at our school sites to start the day to welcome the kids in, and just ensure safety. I think once kids cross the threshold, they feel like, ‘OK, I'm here and my teachers will keep me safe,’ and that's how we want them to feel.”
Editor's note: The Massachusetts Teachers Association is among GBH's financial supporters.
