WASHINGTON — As police continue to investigate threats made against public schools in Prince George’s County this week, they are asking the public to be more prudent when coming across threats posted online.
People often forward school threats to others and post them on social media to raise awareness, but that can make it more difficult for investigators to track down the culprit, police say.
“It’s our goal to identify the origin of these things,” said Prince George’s County police Lt. David Coleman. “When it gets spread around, we have to trace it to its source, so that involves a lot of legwork.”
According to Coleman, the best course of action is to immediately contact the authorities.
“The first thing they should do is call us when they see a threat,” he said.
Online threats against a number of local schools were circulated on social media over the weekend. The threats specifically named several schools in Prince George’s County, prompting police to deploy additional officers to public schools Monday.
Police say they identified two students responsible for taking part in making the threats. One student at Parkdale High School is charged with setting up a Twitter account with a clown theme and threatening mass violence against his classmates.
The other student, at Bladensburg High School, is accused of making a bomb threat. That suspect has not yet been charged, but police expect that he will eventually face charges once the investigation comes to an end.
Prince George’s County police said they are continuing to investigate school threats with help from the FBI.
Other police departments in the area, including those in Montgomery and Fairfax counties, said they are also monitoring the situation.
