A school threat occurred earlier this week in San Juan County after alleged threats were circulated on social media. Farmington and Navajo Police Departments investigated and an arrest was made. It’s the latest example of how social media is being used to recognize threats of violence and act before tragedies occur.
Teens writing threatening posts on social media or making hoax calls to schools are unfortunately not uncommon these days. They are prevalent enough for law enforcement to monitor social media looking for those threatening to do harm.
“We live in a day and age where students, they’re going to want to document what they are doing,” Kyle Dowdy, deputy chief of the Farmington Police Department told KOB 4, adding, “The pictures start to get circulated around school, and then it becomes a school threat.”
Due to the role social media has played in mass shootings around the county, law enforcement no longer takes anything posted online for granted.
“With the prevalence of social media we have to take precautions,” Dowdy said. “Every threat is thoroughly evaluated, thoroughly investigated, and we do procedures such as lockdown just so that threat doesn’t escalate to something worse.”
Students are also playing an important role by reporting any suspicious online activity they notice. The slogan “See something, say something,” applies to social media, too.
“Through Farmington Municipal Schools we have an anonymous reporting system and I think students have been comfortable with reporting threats,” Superintendent Farmington Municipal Schools, Cody Diehl told KOB 4. “They hear more. They see more. We have 11,000 students so when they see things or hear things that are out of place, we need them to speak up.”
Dowdy has social media has resulted in more potential threats being reported. “We are investigating more of them, but I don’t know if there are more threats or there is just a higher volume and a different method of reporting them than there have been in the past,” Dowdy said.