Several incidents involving schools in the county on Thursday were great examples of how although social media can be a useful tool in some ways, it can also be a catalyst for rumors to spread like wildfire and cause unnecessary panic.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but when concerns rise about something serious — such as information about the COVID-19 pandemic or the threat of violence at a school — your first stop should be the experts, not social media.

In this case, the experts were the Seneca Valley School District and local law enforcement, which spent the day Thursday attempting to prevent false information that circulated among students, but somehow got embellished and spread further by parents online, from getting out of control.

Jackson Township’s police chief noted that some rumors were floating around on social media about a student bringing a firearm to school, but police found no credible threat. He added that those panicked by the information were accepting what they saw on social media as fact without having verified it with the proper authorities.

Typically, a school district will not alert families of information that is unverified, but it decided to notify families about the rumor, primarily because false information was spreading quickly. “All of this, from what we can ascertain, started with kids posting on social media,” Seneca Valley board president Eric DiTullio said. “The real sad part is, when parents picked up on it, they expanded upon it. Every time we found a rumor and found no credibility to it, it seems another one sprung up with some variation.”

That same day, the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School and Mars Area School District also addressed rumors about possible threats.

Social media can be a great tool for organizing — for example, drawing a community together to help a family in need — or planning social events. And what you read on social media could possibly be true. People link to articles based on facts all the time. But it should be a no-brainer that you should verify what you read on social media with the proper authorities — whether it’s your local school district or police department — before you accept a piece of information as gospel or, worse, pass it along to others.

The Seneca Valley School District and Jackson Township Police Department had a busy day Thursday, and much of their work could have been avoided had people not continued to spread a rumor that was unsubstantiated and, ultimately, found to be untrue.

— NCD