Many School systems are on heightened alert today (Friday, December 17th) due to a potential threat being talked about on the social media platform TikTok.  Those viral threats are geared toward violence including possible shootings however at this time no credible evidence has been found to indicate the likelihood of such activity.

According to news source AL.COM, on Thursday a pair of Birmingham school districts asked parents to keep their students home for an e-learning day on Friday due to the that social media trend.

Bessemer and Fairfield schools, and other districts – said officials were in touch with Alabama law enforcement. None said officials had identified a credible local threat as of Thursday evening.

Thursday, Bessemer City Schools posted a decision to make Friday a “half” e-learning day, as the district had already planned to send students home at midday to start the winter break.  Fairfield Schools put up a similar post Thursday evening.

Other districts, including Huntsville, said that the state superintendent, Eric Mackey, had mentioned the social media trend to superintendents, Thursday; they wrote that officials were monitoring the situation – adding that some schools plan to have extra police officers on site today (Friday).

Closer to home, in neighboring DeKalb County, the Ft Payne Times Journal states that the school system issued a statement addressing that issue and advises parents – and the public at large – they have been in contact with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and will have an increased law enforcement presence on campuses, all day Friday, as a precautionary measure.

We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops.

(AL.COM/www.al.com/Ft Payne Times-Journal/https://www.facebook.com/timesjournal/)