Smoky Mountain Journal -Fake Social Media Post Behind Threat By 12-Year Old Led To Worry At Holston Middle School Last Week




The Great Smoky Mountain Journal Source: Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:34 PM

Fake Social Media Post Behind Threat By 12-Year Old Led To Worry At Holston Middle School Last Week
A fake social media threat, thought to have been made by a 12-year-old, claimed that he would bring a gun to Holston Middle School last week. School officials told local news agencies the threat was investigated and found to be false. School officials found the accused boy did not post the threat, and his parents said he didn't even have social media accounts. Monday, the student's parents said he's afraid to go to school after the post attributed to him went viral. The parents defended their young son but asked to be unidentified. "He's scared to go back to school," they a local Knoxville TV station. "He's scared of what people think of him. He's scared to be out in public." The student's parents said while their son did not make the post, someone must have been behind it. "You may not know the person yourself, but what you say does hurt that person, and what happened to us affected a 12-year-old, an innocent 12-year-old." They asked social media users not to believe everything they read online. "People run wild with ideas," they said. "Anybody that sees that picture is now going to be pointing fingers." The student's parents said the fingers now pointed at their son taught them a lesson about the power of social media. "Social media forces [children] to grow up," the parents said. "It forces them to experience a world that they're not ready for."