Security heightened at area schools Friday following apparent rumors of violence on social media
BURLINGTON, N.J. - Friday was not a typical day at schools across the country as many were on high alert due to threats of potential violence from social media.
As the school day came to an end parents, students, and administrators got through it while taking precautions amid reports of a TikTok video that threatened school shootings.
As school bells sounded throughout the Delaware Valley, police were stationed outside.
"I couldn’t believe they were police on campus walking the buildings today like this is the world we live in now," one parent expressed to FOX 29's JoAnn Pileggi.
It's a world where rumors that apparently started on TikTok prompted precautions across the country. The social media post apparently called for Friday to be a nationwide school shooting day.
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Law enforcement agencies contacted local districts and asked them to be on high alert.
Some districts that were contacted by FOX 29 admitted there was an atypically high number of student absences on Friday. Other districts allowed students to use excused absences, and a district in Delaware County canceled classes altogether.
"We’re saying how do we help the families talk to them, talk to their children, and cope with it. Do we ever even think how to talk to the parents and how to help them cope with it?" asked licensed mental health counselor Liza Piekarsky.
Piekarsky worked with teachers after the 2018 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"We have to provide resources for them to seek outlets to their emotions and fears as well," Piekarsky added.
TikTok, which says it has 1 billion users, responded to the controversy with a tweet saying in part, "if we did find promotion of violence on our platform we'd remove it and report it to law enforcement."
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