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They said it was pretty impressive how quickly the thing spread. And no, that’s not an actual compliment. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services was talking about the panic over the threats to Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward schools. And it’s something for us to discuss here at the Editor’s Desk. 

So as the story goes, a kid is scrolling through SnapChat, when he comes across an old (and fake/staged) image. He interprets it to be a threat against schools and suddenly he’s messaging all of his friends, texting and letting them know that he saw a threat against the school district. Then his friends share with their friends, getting very specific in which district the threat was targeted against. They in turn share with moms and dads, who understandably are a bit freaked out, being told by their children that the school district is being targeted. And so, mom and dad start sharing what their kids told them on their own social media, getting upset at the school district “for not doing something about this!” Meanwhile, school district officials have barely been informed that this is actually happening, as there was no legitimate threat. 

Does that not sound ridiculous? It’s the pure definition of what we used to call Telephone, a game where 9 times out of 10, the end result is nothing like what was originally said. The threat may not have been real, but the panic it triggered definitely was. And all this because someone saw a post on a social media app and immediately had to run and share it with people, who then ran and shared it with people. All the panic, all the fear, all the canceled classes or classes that had 7 students rather than the regular 27, could have been avoided, if people had done something that seems unheard of in this day and time.

Instead of sharing with family and friends, this was a time to just reach out to the sheriff and school district, explain what you saw and where it came from. And then do one of the worst things I can imagine. Nothing. I’m asking folks in this case, once you share your evidence, do nothing. That means no posts, no texts with friends, no phone calls about it with family. It means sitting back and letting people figure out if this is a credible threat. It’s a lot easier to do that when you’re not fielding several dozen calls at both the sheriff’s office and school district headquarters, all demanding answers right now. The problem is, this isn’t an immediate answer type of situation. 

Put yourself in Prince Edward Sheriff Tony Epps’ shoes for a minute. He’s just been given a screenshot from a cell phone, of a text conversation that references a threat never actually included. He and his staff had to track down the original image, determine who made it and if it’s something for schools to be concerned about. That’s not something they can do immediately. It takes time. 

In talking with state officials, I was told about another case this week, one where a mother came across a news report on Facebook that involved a generic threat, that is one that doesn’t identify any school district. The threat was from August 18, something mentioned in the report and on the image, but somehow when things were shared, that turned into a mass panic, one that went through multiple states. 

Look, I fully understand the desire to know things immediately. I used to work disaster relief with the Red Cross and spent time after Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi. There was no internet working. Heck, for the first bit of time, we set up base in a Sunday School classroom of a damaged church, with nothing to see with except flashlights. It drove my family members crazy, not hearing from me for days at a time. Now my little sister is working disaster relief with a nonprofit and traveling to points overseas at times where she can’t be reached for days. And it drives me crazy, not knowing. 

It’s the not knowing that causes problems. Because we fill in the blanks, even if we don’t mean to. We think of the worst case scenarios and make them real in our minds. And that’s what these social media posts, especially the generic ones, do. They make us nervous about all the things not said in the statements, all the promises not made. Soon, what had started as a simple, innocent Facebook post manages to stir up mass panic. Let’s avoid that. Let’s give the information to those who need it and step back, rather than starting up more conversations. You might be surprised how much it helps.