Middletown schools and police responded Sept. 10 to a threat against the district made by a 9-year-old. In Monroe Local Schools, a student on Sept. 11 fabricated a claim of a gun on a school district bus forcing the school to close.

In both instances, students shared the threats across social media and caused alarm in other cities.

Several school districts sent out letters because their students shared social media posts to their respective grades’ group chats. Through the social channels, they obtained images or the actual posted threats and then shared them, either as an “FYI” or with commentary to the effect of “I can’t believe this” or “this has to stop,” according to area school officials.

This is also a violation of many school policies, as the act of sharing threatening posts induces panic among students and parents.

A pair of Hamilton students are facing suspension or have been suspended in separate incidents of sharing threating posts, said Associate Superintendent Andrea Blevins.

“They don’t realize that’s Middletown or wherever else it could be,” she said.

Every report is investigated as a real threat by the local police department and the school district whether it’s really against the district or not. Blevins said she or the administration will immediately contact the Hamilton Police Department about any threat or possible threat they receive or hear about. The district also begins an investigation.

“The amount of community resources that are used to investigate any one of these claims is incredible,” she said.

The social media post that circulated around the cellphones of Edgewood City Schools students was an image related to the Buckeye Local threat in the Steubenville Ohio, area, said Superintendent Kelly Spivey, adding that area school superintendents regularly communicate.

“What will happen sometimes is you will not necessarily get a copycat, but they’re afraid; they get a glimpse of the information and they think it’s pertaining to their school district,” she said. “When it gets out to the kids, they don’t know what’s local, what’s next door or even what’s in the state.”

Another Middletown student apparently shared a school threat post via Snapchat, and it made its way to an Illinois school, according to a police report. A Middletown investigator reported he received a call from an Illinois detective investigating that threat that originated in Butler County.

This is why immediate communications to parents and the community is helpful, Spivey said, to make sure “people are on the same page.”

“When you hear something like that, you can’t assume. You got to research it and hunt it down,” she said. Investigators need to quickly assess if the intent behind the post is malicious or if they’re commenting on the astonishment of the image.

Fairfield City Schools told the Journal-News they had an incident in which a student reported a concern about a social media post that included a name similar to a Butler County school’s.

“We immediately investigated the concern and found that no threat existed,” said school spokesperson Gina Gentry-Fletcher. “The wording in the post had been misconstrued as such. We then notified the school’s parents and explained the circumstances. When we hear about threats in neighboring school districts, we monitor the situation and act accordingly when necessary.”

Fairfield City Schools crosses community boundaries, as the district has school buildings in Fairfield city and township, and Gentry-Fletcher said the district works closely with both police departments.

“Our students’ and staff’s safety and security has always been and will continue to be our priority,” she said. “Regardless of the situation, we do take every threat to our district seriously. As this trend with social media threats becomes more prevalent, communication is key. We try to be open and timely with our families.”

The spread of social media posts is curbed in Edgewood, at least during the school day, as they have a no-cellphone policy. High schoolers may have phones in their pockets or in their bags, but never out, and middle schoolers may only keep them in a locker. Spivey said this allows students to focus on education.

While school threats are becoming commonplace, administrators said no assumptions can be made, as every threat is investigated as if they are the target.

“I think in the era we’re living in, and as a mom and a grandparent, you have to do your due diligence,” Spivey said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s frustrating or not, it’s reality and we have to hunt it down. There’s nothing more important than school safety.”

The phrase “see something, say something” is common in many environments, but kids especially need to say something to an adult if they see something on social media or hear something discussed among fellow students.

“We need to make sure we have local authorities involved with our administrators and parents and make sure we aren’t passing on fake news, that we’re passing on real things and we all work together to make sure our kids are safe.”

Consequences of threats

The 9-year-old fifth-grader in Middletown faces a second-degree felony charge for inducing panic and remains in the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center. The Monroe School District did not report whether any disciplinary action was taken against a student, but Monroe police stayed at school buildings for several hours on Sept. 11.

Parents of the 2021 school shooter at Oxford High School in Pontiac, Michigan, were charged and convicted this past April on four counts of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials. While the charges this past week in Middletown aren’t on that level ― the boy faces a second-degree felony of inducing panic ― there is a precedent to hold parents accountable for a child’s action.

However, Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said that while Ohio law would allow him and other prosecuting attorneys to pursue charges against parents, it’s something he would only consider doing in extreme cases, saying, “Even if we can, should we?”

“To hold a child’s parent’s responsible for some arbitrary spontaneous decision that a child makes, that is totally out of the control of a parent, could lead to an absurd result,” he said. “Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.”

Gmoser said while it’s unlikely he’d see his office prosecute a parent for a child’s actions, the threat of possible prosecution “might force better education between parents and child.”

A school threat is also not limited to buildings and campuses, Gmoser said.

“When there is a threat, law enforcement and health service organizations are trained to go to the danger, to not run away from the danger and go on an emergent basis,” he said. As they race to respond, he said they could hit a pedestrian or crash into another vehicle.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said he doesn’t believe “we’ve seen anything yet,” that it will get worse in the next decade, “and there’s not much we can do about other than to be proactive.”

“We got to prepare,” he said. “There shouldn’t be a school anywhere without security. That won’t stop it, but it’s a start.”