Snapchat on school shootings prompts increased police presence at Sycamore schools

SYCAMORE – A social media post caused increased police presence at Sycamore schools on Monday but officials said no direct threat was made, and rumors of one are unsubstantiated.

Sycamore Police Chief Jim Winters said a patrol officer on Sunday received a report from a community member “who saw a post online that talked about a threat to the schools.”

That report prompted the increased police presence on Monday, Winters said.

“It was not a specific threat, but it was one that we felt we needed to just follow up on and make sure we could find out if there was any credibility to it, and to this point we have not” Winters said.

Monday’s increased police presence is the latest safety threat to plague DeKalb County schools and prompt police response, a trend seen across much of northern Illinois since the school year began. Joliet police also increased their presence in schools Monday in response to a social media threat police said wasn’t credible. A wave of hoax threats also were reported in Kane County schools a week ago, authorities said.

On Friday, two Sycamore schools were placed under a brief soft lockdown after a Chicago man lied to police in a 911 call claiming to have seen someone in a Sycamore High School bathroom with a gun in order to divert police from finding him, court records allege. Another threat that authorities determined was unsubstantiated also allegedly targeted a Huntley Middle School in DeKalb Sept. 11. Earlier in the school year, DeKalb High School employed what district officials called a “secure and teach” protocol in response to an off-campus fight. The protocol saw teachers continue lessons in locked down classrooms.

Winters said his department contacted the Sycamore school district to inform them of their investigation.

Winters told Shaw Local News Network Monday morning the investigation centered around a “generic” social media post.

“It was something that was given to us that was a forwarded Snapchat message, and it talks very generally about school shootings but it does not threaten that it’s going to happen,” Winters said. “It just talks about school shootings in general.”

Sycamore Community School District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder said he was informed of the social media post late Sunday night.

“Posts like these can be a little challenging because there’s not specific details about one community or one school, but we take them most seriously,” Winters said.

In an email to District 427 students, staff and families Monday morning Sycamore schools officials wrote that they were aware of an unsubstantiated threat to school safety circulating on social media.

“The post is vague and does not mention any specific school or location,” district officials wrote. “After investigating, the Sycamore Police Department has found no evidence to support the threat but continues to look into the origin of the social media post.”

Aside from the increased police presence Sycamore schools operated as normal on Monday, Wilder said.

Winters said the investigation into the Snapchat message that prompted the increased police presence at Sycamore schools remains ongoing.

“Whenever something like this comes up we will increase our presence in schools not only to show we’re aware of it, but if people have questions for us,” Winters said. “We’ll also try to investigate where the origin from this, you know what’s the origin of where this came from, this information, because sometimes we receive stuff and they said they received it from one person, or that person received it from another, and it gets a little bit cloudy on who actually got the information and how they got it.”