Loud, Fast, and Probably Fake: Communicating Through a Hoax Threat

It's Sunday night. You're finishing the dishes when your phone buzzes with a screenshot from a parent. Someone online has posted a list of local schools, yours included, with a vague warning about Monday. Within an hour there are three more messages, and a neighborhood Facebook group is already debating whether to keep kids home.

This fall, that scene is playing out in districts across the country. In late August, school districts in southeast Georgia warned families about a social media trend they believed had started in another state and then been edited to name local schools. One district said it learned of the trend late and apologized to families for the delay in notifying them. Just last week, Howard County schools in Maryland confirmed that threats circulating on social media had targeted several schools and said they were working with police to investigate.