JACKSON TWP — Unsubstantiated rumors on social media, largely embellished by parents, led to fears of violence Thursday at Seneca Valley School District.

Seneca Valley school board president Eric DiTullio said the district first became aware of the allegations, which included the false claim a student planned to bring a firearm to school, Thursday morning. The district, per protocols, asked Jackson Township police to investigate, and police chief Terry Seilhamer said there was no reason to believe there was a threat.

“There were some rumors on social media, but we found no credible information to indicate that anyone had made such a statement,” Seilhamer said.

Seneca Valley posted an update to its website around 7 p.m. Thursday, quoting a message from the state Department of Education regarding threats of school shootings and bomb threats stemming from TikTok and other social media forums.

“As an update from this morning’s communication, we now have reason to believe today’s situation on the Seneca Valley Secondary Campus, grades 7-12, began as the result of the posts mentioned in the (Department of Education’s) letter, and which have been trending online all day,” the statement reads in part.

The district will have an increased police presence at its buildings Friday, according to the statement.

Exaggeration

DiTullio said the district decided, due to the rapid spreading of these rumors, to make families aware of the situation, a step the district typically does not take when there is no factual basis for an alleged threat. He added Seneca had, within roughly 90 minutes of learning of the rumors, issued a notification to parents.

The rumors, DiTullio said, began with students but “took on a life of their own” when parents became aware.

“All of this, from what we can ascertain, started with kids posting on social media,” DiTullio said. “The real sad part is, when parents picked up on it, they expanded upon it.”

Both DiTullio and Seilhamer said police investigate any threat of violence at schools, and this situation was no different. Seilhamer said police, as the day went on, were asked to investigate several iterations of the unsubstantiated rumors.

“Every time we found a rumor and found no credibility to it, it seems another one sprung up with some variation,” he said.

Factual sources

These false claims eventually expanded to include allegations of police action. Seilhamer said, contrary to social media reports, no student was removed from any Seneca Valley building Thursday in handcuffs. Nor did any student enter any Seneca building with a firearm.

In fact, Seilhamer said as far as Jackson police were concerned, there was no threat of violence Thursday toward Seneca Valley with a basis in fact.

The police chief added he wouldn’t call Thursday’s rumor mill a “gun threat.”

“I would say it’s people not asking the right agencies, if they had concerns, addressing it with them, and instead taking their information off social media and believing it to be true,” he said. “Nobody verifies anything with agencies that have responsibility for these types of incidents. They just accept what they see on the internet or social media as fact and they run with it, and in some cases they embellish it or they add to it.”

Other causes

Seilhamer and DiTullio both said they understand parents’ concerns over any rumor of violence at school. But both emphasized the importance of looking for factual information, rather than turning to the rumor mill.

When there are threats, students “are going to panic. That’s what kids do,” DiTullio said. “But when they text their parents, and (the parents) instead of first going or having their kids go to the adults in school or the factual channels, they go to Facebook, that’s become a problem in the community and in society as a whole. That’s the sad part.”

Recent events at Seneca Valley have added anxiety, DiTullio said. Since the beginning of December, two Seneca students have died by suicide.

“This week, these last three weeks, have been tragic for the community, for the school district, for families, and to see people reacting this way on something like this, which just adds to the anxiety, is heartbreaking,” DiTullio said.

The district has brought in trained therapy dogs, and DiTullio said Seneca plans to continue following protocols — “unfortunately, we have emergency plans in place for these types of things,” he said — in the coming days and weeks in an attempt to ease the concerns of both students and families.

“We’re going to continue these types of things for these types of crises,” he said.