Bozeman Police Warn Residents About Dangerous TikTok Trend
If you're a parent of a student in Gallatin Valley, you may have received a letter from school officials about a national TikTok trend that has caused quite a bit of concern.
The frightening trend has been circulating on TikTok and encourages people to call in bomb threats. school shooting threats, and violence at schools throughout the country.
The following letter was sent to parents in the Manhattan School District on Thursday.
Several parents throughout Gallatin County made the decision to keep their children at home on Friday as a safety precaution.
The Bozeman Police Department issued a statement on Friday acknowledging that it is aware of the TikTok trend. While they don't believe the threats are credible locally, they are taking the matter seriously.
The following message was shared on the Bozeman Police Department Facebook page on Friday morning.
The Bozeman Police Department's School Resource Officers (SRO’s) are present and visible in our schools today, as well as extra patrols near our school sites.
Due to the viral nature of social media, information concerning the reported Tik Tok challenge can change very rapidly. Some posts around the nation now call for violence in schools. We are not aware of any local threats at this time.
If you have any further concerns, please contact Sergeant Hal Richardson – School Resource Sergeant at 406-582-2213.
TikTok released the following state in response to the threat.
We handle even rumored threats with utmost seriousness, which is why we're working with law enforcement to look into warnings about potential violence at schools even though we have not found evidence of such threats originating or spreading via TikTok.
Read the full statement here.