Police in Riverside arrested a 15-year-old girl Wednesday who they said made violent threats on social media against Ramona High School.
The allegations come in the wake of the Riverside Police Department’s arrest Tuesday of a 13-year-old girl who is accused of making threats against Chemawa Middle School in at least two social media posts. A third teenager — a 14-year-old boy from the Riverside County city of Eastvale — was arrested Monday on suspicion of making undisclosed threats against students at a Jurupa Unified School District middle school.
Public Information Officer Ryan J. Railsback said the Riverside Police Department had investigated two dozen similar threats since the school year began in August. Similar incidents have occurred in recent weeks across the nation since a Sept. 4 shooting at a high school in Winder, Ga., that killed four people.
“This is going on across the entire country. We don’t know what is causing it,” he said. Specific threats against individual students or a school can lead to an arrest.
Wednesday’s incident stems from an Instagram group chat among female students in which one of the girls shared a photo of firearms and made statements suggesting violence against her classes. But she hadn’t taken the photo herself — it had been recirculated from a social media post that originally threatened school violence in another state.
Police searched the girl’s home and determined she did not have access to firearms. She was arrested and booked into a Riverside County juvenile facility on suspicion of making criminal threats.
“These aren’t pictures kids are taking with guns they have access to,” Railsback said. “What we’re finding is they’re just screenshotting these photos from social media and using those.”
Other students then take a screenshot of these re-created posts and text them to their friends, which “continues it and hypes it out,” the officer said. “It literally spreads like wildfire.”
The threats are causing disruptions at schools. After the threats at Chemawa Middle School, Railsback said a line of 150 parents formed, all trying to pick up their children early because they were afraid of possible violence.
Railsback advised Riverside County residents who see a social media or online post threatening violence toward a specific school or individual to call local law enforcement — but avoid sharing it on social media or texting an image to friends. Reports can be called in to the city of Riverside’s public safety communications center at (951) 354-2007.
Those who come across a social media or online post that raises concern or suggests potential school violence but does not mention a specific threat, school or individual can report it by using the “Send a Message” feature on the Riverside Police Department’s Atlas 1 mobile app.