KENMORE, N.Y. (WIVB) — There’s been many cases in the past year of students using social media as a weapon to bully their classmates.
The Erie County District Attorney’s office is teaming up with several local school districts to educate students on the serious consequence that an online threat can have.
The DA’s office gave a presentation to Ken-Ton eighth graders Thursday morning and will present to more schools in the district in the coming weeks.
DA John Flynn said there were 13 social media threats across local districts last fall that closed down schools for a period of time.
Flynn said there were hundreds more that didn’t lead to shut-downs, showing this is a county-wide problem.
“They have to recognize that those seem to be, in their mind, harmless comments that they make can lead to violence,” he said.
He said the incident at McKinley High School last month involved a social media post, showing kids what can result from posting the wrong thing online.
“If you can in part examples, knowledge, about tragic things that happened like a 14-year-old getting stabbed 10 times in a high school parking lot, they can visualize that in the Ken East parking lot here.”
Ken-Ton superintendent Sabatino Cimato said the district had several concerning posts circulate in the fall and winter.
That’s why he’s taking action with the younger kids, before it’s too late.
“Kids need expectations, folks. They need high expectations, the only way you set those high expectations is by being very direct and explaining to them, ‘this is the expectation, here’s the consequences when you don’t meet the expectation,'” Cimato said.
He said they’re also focusing on the impact social media can have on kids’ futures.
“It’s difficult for a 14-year-old to comprehend that something theyre putting on Facebook at 14 could come back to haunt them at 25. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t keep on hitting it, the more we hit it, the more we educate, the more we’re consistent with that message, the more that they’ll get it.”
Flynn’s office is working with the Buffalo and Eden districts in addition to Ken-Ton to teach kids to think before they post.
Flynn also said each district in the county is assigned an assistant district attorney to help them with anything they need.
Kayla Green is a reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.