Three high school students in Oldham County, Ky., were charged with making terrorist threats after participating in a TikTok challenge, county police told several local media outlets.
The three teenagers were participating in a viral social media challenge that consists of going to school and recording themselves telling a teacher or staff member that they are carrying a firearm or a bomb in their backpack, as a prank.
This challenge earned the three young minors accusations of terrorist threats for allegedly claiming to carry weapons in a school. According to CBS, citing police sources, two of the teenagers are 15 years old.
Banned indefinitely
The school district also took action. According to a school statement accessed by WDRB.com, the students involved in this incident have been indefinitely suspended. They are scheduled to undergo a psychological evaluation to assess their mental state before they return to class.
As previously communicated in a letter to families regarding terroristic threatening, students who participate in this type of behavior face serious consequences. In addition to school-level discipline, students are prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law for making a threat to a public school.
According to the New York Post, videos of the prank that were uploaded to TikTok have been deleted at the request of the school district. This is not the first time that TikTok challenges have raised alarm. These types of videos are at the center of the concerns of parents, who see children nationwide follow social media trends that often put their lives at risk.
