No Playing Around: Cops Talk Severe Consequences for School Threats [VIDEO]
"Zero Tolerance." That's the message police are sending to school kids (or anyone else for that matter) who consider making any sort of threat toward a school.
From the teens who threatened to carry out a Columbine-like shooting in Lapeer to the area teen who recently made a school threat on Snap Chat, every incident is going to be investigated and police say the consequences will be life-changing.
"When you use Snapchat or Facebook or Instagram, it's not anonymous," attorney Matthew Schneider tells WDIV. "Law enforcement can find out who you are. It's not that difficult for us to track devices, and we're doing it every day."
Schneider, agents from local police agencies and members of the FBI have been going from school to school with a warning.
"'Well, I wasn't really going to shoot up the school. I wasn't going to blow up anything. I wasn't going to hurt that person,'" Schneider said at one recent presentation. "By the time you make the threat, you are already guilty of the crime. There is no defense that 'I didn't mean to scare.'"
We can't say it enough. Talk to your kids about the importance of acting responsibly. Once you hit send, the message is out there, and there's no bringing it back. The consequences can be life-altering.