Some local school districts saw an increased police presence Friday, and it may continue as school and law enforcement officials continue to assess the validity of threats circulating on social media.

“The Boardman administration is aware of the social media Snapchat thread going around the tri-county area that involves making threats on local schools. With safety as our top priority for our students, the Boardman Police Department will have a presence in our schools today,” read

a statement that went out to parents Friday morning.

Austintown Schools Superintendent Tim Kelty posted a message on the district’s website as well.

“Historically, the Austintown Local School District and the Austintown Police Department have addressed and managed challenging situations that continue to arise within the district,” he wrote. “Although today was a proven hoax, we will continue to work together and take the measures necessary to ensure that our students and staff are safe in our buildings.”

Both districts were referring to vague threats that have made the rounds on SnapChat and TikTok, nationwide, in the wake of the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia earlier this month.

One of the threats appears to come from one student warning others that they intend to allow a relative to enter the school with a gun.

In other cases, it is referred to simply as the Tiktok “hit list” and the schools vary depending on the state or region. School districts in Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and others across the country have been subject to the threats. Many, including some in Northeast Ohio, have canceled school as a precaution.

“This is just a very vague blanket threat that has been circulating social media,” said Capt. Tom Collins of Austintown Police Department. “We decided to have extra officers on our campus to ensure that no issues would arise. I know schools in Trumbull and Portage counties as well that have taken extra precaution because of this. Every time there’s an incident like this, in weeks following, there’s a copycat effect where individuals will try to create hysteria and feed off those emotions.”

Boardman Superintendent Chris Neifer said the district learned of the potential threat late Thursday night when a school resource officer in Austintown passed it along to the SRO at Boardman Glenwood Middle School.

“We discussed it, and as parents started to see it too, they became concerned,” Neifer said.

“We have such a great relationship with BPD and so they increased their presence to provide comfort for our families and make sure we are providing the best environment possible for staff and students.

SAFETY MEASURES IN PLACE

The districts say they increased police presence out of an abundance of caution, but Austintown and Boardman both say security measures are a carefully curated part of daily operations. Collins said they will monitor the situation as long as necessary.

“It all depends on the atmosphere. If people continue to recirculate the threats, we have to continue to elevate our presence,” he said. “We want to return to an environment that is nurturing for education, but we have to give the community a sense that we’re taking this seriously. It’s a constant process that we have to reevaluate daily.”

Boardman Police Chief Todd Werth said the relationship between his department and the school district is strong and one of the community’s best assets.

“Our police department, and our township, has a great working relationship with the district and we leverage that for the safety of the kids,” he said. “We talk on a routine basis. We’re always going to put safety first. If we thought there was an issue and it wasn’t safe to be in school, we would have spoken to the school and proceeded from there.”

Werth said police will be conducting additional spot checks in and around the schools, and observing students for any suspicious behavior. He said Glenwood Junior High School also had an evacuation drill.

“Every building has a safety plan, we have our school resource officers, all our buildings are locked down so visitors have to register in the main offices,” said Neifer. “We review safety plans at a minimum annually.”

Both districts this year also invested in phone apps that give teachers greater and more immediate control in emergency situations. Boardman’s Navigate360 app and Austintown’s Raptor Alert allow teachers to immediately notify all local law enforcement officers of a situation and initiate a lockdown if necessary. The apps also tell police exactly where in the school or on campus the incident is occurring and lets them tie directly into the school’s security cameras to monitor the situation in real time.

Werth said the unfortunate reality is that one community’s tragedy is every other community’s lesson, and he and Collins both said their departments try to learn from mistakes other departments and school districts make in shooting incidents.

“From a law enforcement standpoint, what did we get right, and what can we do better?” Werth said. Since Uvalde [Robb Elementary School in Texas], we’ve done a lot internally just based on some lessons learned there, whether it’s equipment, training, or our thought process.”

“We always try to follow up with what transpired, and see where the system failed, and we look to see what we’re doing that might mitigate that,” Collins said.

Kelty praised Austintown for its coordination with the district, especially summer drill sessions in the school buildings that involve the fire department, EMTs, and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

“Our entire teams are dedicated to each other, we all know each other very well on a personal and professional level,” Kelty said. “We train together, and we believe strongly believe in our protocols and procedures. APD knows what I’m going to do and I know what APD is going to do.”

Kelty said the district has officers in every building every day, an officer patrolling the campus in a cruiser, a former law enforcement officer – Kathy Dina – as district security supervisor, and more than 450 cameras across campus.

Youngstown City Schools also said they are monitoring the situation and have security measures in place.

“The district has a comprehensive school emergency plan that administration and staff are trained on in case of a crisis,” said spokesperson Stacy Quinones. “We encourage open dialogue and transparency with our scholars and families and always live by the adage ‘if you see something, say something.’ The district promotes the Safer Ohio Tip Line, a service where individuals can report concerns anonymously.”

MAKING IT PERSONAL

But officials say it’s about more than just standard security measures.

“If there is one thing we have all learned from these tragedies, It is to understand the importance of the red flags that a child or student may be expressing prior to the incident, and look into them as early as possible, whether it is in an investigative or a mental health capacity,” said Mahoning County Jail Warden and Chief Deputy William Cappabianca. “It’s very important that any member in any community, if they see any flags that an authority figure cannot see, that they report it. If you see something, say something, immediately.”

Werth said Boardman police and schools work closely together in that way too.

“The whole prevention and identification aspect of trying to get resources to someone who is struggling, that’s the key,” he said.

In addition to school resource officers, Boardman police have a designated juvenile case officer. When teachers bring concerns to administrators and police, BPD will follow up with the student and their family if necessary.

“But you don’t really hear about those success stories.

Collins echoed the sentiments and said Austintown operates similarly..

“If a teacher approaches an officer and explains a child has been more withdrawn or displayed more violent behavior, then an officer will intervene, usually with the presence of guidance counselor,” he said.

Based upon that encounter, police can submit the student for emergency evaluation, or make contact with their parents to see if something is going on in the residence that needs to be addressed.

“We don’t know how many times we’ve prevented an incident. We would think we’ve probably averted a lot of incidents, we don’t know if we’ve successfully averted one or if it’s ten,” he said.

Kelty said making connections with kids is the secret to success.

“It’s day-to-day interaction. Our kids see our police personnel in the building, they see administrators and staff – it’s the relationship we have with our kids every day,” he said. “A lot of our people live in Austintown, and their kids go to Austintown, our police, administrative staff, teachers, they’re all neighbors and so it’s easy for them to care about Austintown and we all believe in that.”