TikTok-linked shooting threats disrupt classes in schools across Argentina

Classes in many schools across Argentina were affected this week by threats of mass shootings written on bathroom walls by high school students, who were reportedly encouraged by posts on the TikTok social media platform. School shootings are very rare in Argentina. However, one was reported last month, when a 15-year-old student in San Cristóbal, in Santa Fe province, killed a 13-year-old boy. Some of the institutions closed down for a day or activated the Education Ministry’s protocols for “suspicion of firearms.” Police officers have even set up a guard outside the schools where lessons have not been cancelled. A teacher at one of the Buenos Aires city schools where the protocol was activated told the Herald that most students and teachers consider the alleged threats as “teenage pranks.” “The students who came weren’t exactly scared — they thought the ones who did it were idiots because people get frightened,” added the teacher, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. “The atmosphere at school was fine. At recess, everyone was out playing football.” However, she said, some parents “panicked” after the school authorities informed them and wanted to go pick up their kids. The teacher added that the prevailing theory is that the students wrote the graffiti, which allegedly read “shooting tomorrow” or similar, because of a viral TikTok challenge. Reinforced measures A spokesperson for the Buenos Aires City Education Ministry said the government activated protocols, filed police reports, and referred the matter to the Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents of the City of Buenos Aires and the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the Protection of Minors. “Supervisory measures within the schools have been reinforced, and we are working with students on school coexistence and responsible speech,” the spokesperson told the Herald. The teacher spoke about the issue in her class, where a student said that “it was disrespectful to the community of San Cristóbal.”  “He said that it was no laughing matter, as a 13-year-old boy died a few weeks ago.”