TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Across the country, threats are circulating on social media including some mentioning Pima County schools.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the threats were unsubstantiated, but are a reminder to the community to never post or repost school threats on social media.
“It just complicates things for us. It makes that investigative effort that much harder to deal with,” said Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.
Instead of sharing the post, Nanos said to screenshot it.
For parents, if your child sees something, call 911 first not the school.
“Sending an email to the school, although someone might think is appropriate, the real challenge becomes if it’s after hours that school may not get it till the next morning, and that could be too late,” Nanos said. “You see something call 911, let us handle it. We’ll get a hold of the schools. We’ll take care of that end of it, but we need to know about it immediately.”
Nanos added that they have worked in partnership with all the schools districts in Pima County on threat assessments for the past few years. He said one area they may have failed in this is getting parents involved.
Every parent has a role to play in making sure these threats do not spread.
“We don’t want you to dismiss it. What we want you to look at it, is this a threat? And if you have any inkling that it is or maybe it isn’t, don’t hesitate, call 911,” said Nanos.
Nanos adds that the community can rely on school resource officers to stop these threats from spreading.
“Once this stuff happens, they immediately network together, share that information, let other schools know what’s going on in other schools, let other districts know what’s going on in other districts,” Nanos said.
The districts in the area want to remind students that if they see something, say something.
For parents and students in the Marana Unified School District, they have a Speak up, safety tip line to call or text.
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