Social Media Threats Keep Students Out of School
On August 18, close to 1,000 students were absent from three Orange County schools as social media threats kept them home. Four schools phoned parents and guardians telling of the threats, but only three schools saw high rates of absences.
According to the Orange Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, a man posted several messages on Twitter that were threatening in nature. Pipe bombs and the shooting of students were mentioned in the tweets. The law enforcement agencies were working together to investigate the threats.
Jesus Henry Kong, 23, a rtransient also known by the names Jessie Eloah Calix and Jesus Matute has been named as the man who posted the threats. He has been known to live in Maryland, Florida, Virginia and California. Law enforcement officials say that the man has a history of encounters with officers.
One of the tweets said, “I want to shoot a few (kids) at Liberty Middle School. I dislike homosexuals…”.
Law enforcement officials everywhere ask for public cooperation when threats such as these are posted on social media. If you see such threats, do not assume that they are not serious. Once the police are made aware of threats to schools and students, they can investigate and determine whether the threats have merit.
If keeping your children at home is something that you feel is safe, it is certainly your prerogative. That said, law enforcement officials will typically advise if they believe that it is in the best interest of families to keep their students home due to threats. In this case, students who stayed home did so of their own accord or at the suggestion of their parents. Police officials have said that they did not believe the threats to be credible.
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