Students making false threats facing severe consequences around Michigan

(WNEM) — School districts crossed the Michigan are dealing with copycat threats pursuing Tuesday’s horrific shooting.

Even though the threats whitethorn not beryllium credible, administrators and instrumentality enforcement are not taking them lightly.

More than 100 schools crossed the authorities were closed Friday due to the fact that of threats of violence.

Bay City Public Schools announced their closure aft a flood of messages they couldn’t support up with.

“It’s truthful incredibly anserine and beingness ruining to bash thing similar that. The world is radical who are liable for this, portion they whitethorn deliberation it’s a silly crippled and it’s amusive and it’s a large mode to get schoolhouse cancelled, determination are terrible transgression penalties that spell on with this,” said Steve Bigelow, superintendent astatine Bay City Public Schools.

Penalties see up to 20 years successful situation for a mendacious menace of coercion and utilizing a machine to perpetrate a crime. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has already charged a 17-year-old Flint Southwestern Classical Academy miss with some of those.

“In this time and age, it’s conscionable thing you cannot do. There are ramifications for doing it — you volition get locked up, you won’t spell location anytime successful the adjacent future,” Leyton said.

Bay City Public Schools was not the lone territory closed Friday. It is 1 of much than 2 twelve successful mid-Michigan that unopen their doors retired of an abundance of caution.

All the schools successful Tuscola County were closed Friday.

“Parents request to wage attraction to evidently their kid’s societal media. Monitor that. And impressment upon them, again, from some perspectives, the consequences of falsely reporting and past the consequences of having accusation and not passing it along,” said Mark Reene, Tuscola County Prosecutor.

A miss astatine Standish-Sterling High School was arrested aft posting a menace to societal media, according to the Arenac County Sheriff’s Department. She is besides charged with terrorism.