Lower Merion district officials and police are investigating threats made on Discord against middle schoolers

The Lower Merion School District and police are investigating threats of violence against students at Black Rock and Bala Cynwyd Middle Schools, with messages targeting particular racial groups and people with certain disabilities and sexual orientations, district officials said.

The messages, which were shared beginning in January on the Discord social platform “allegedly by (Black Rock Middle School) students,” came to light over the weekend when screenshots were shared in a group chat, Sarah Stout, Black Rock Middle School principal, told parents Monday afternoon.

“The student who made the threats will face appropriate consequences,” Stout said. She said that the Lower Merion Township Police were investigating, and that although investigations had not indicated that any member of the school community was in danger, police would have an increased presence at the school Tuesday.

Stout didn’t describe the threats, but called the language “extremely disturbing.” She said 10 people were named in the messages, along with “specific groups.”

At a school board meeting Monday night, acting Superintendent Megan Shafer said the messages referred to “people belonging to a particular racial group, people who had particular disabilities or conditions, and people who had particular sexual preferences.”

School officials said Monday they had contacted the families of students who were named in the messages — which in addition to Black Rock students included two students at Bala Cynwyd Middle School, according to that school’s principal, Jeffrey Hunter.

Anxiety over threats of violence has been running high in the district’s middle school community following the disclosure last month of text messages between Bala Cynwyd fifth graders talking about school shootings — with one writing “everyday i think of school shootings and hope the most people die,” followed by another student responding, “I hope the following people will get shot.”

Those texts were shared with The Inquirer by parents whose child was named in the exchange, and who faulted the district for providing limited information — officials described the texts only as involving “threatening messages” — and allowing the participating students to return to school. (The district said it followed its threat assessment process, involving the Lower Merion police, to determine that there was no credible threat.)

Another text message threat involving Bala Cynwyd students was reported last week, when school officials said a student sent a text threatening another student and teacher, and then texted, “Just kidding.” The school again notified police.

“I want to make it clear that saying ‘just kidding’ does not give students a ‘free pass,’” Hunter told families in a message last week, adding that “in cases like this,” an offending student “may be given an opportunity to take restorative steps, to ensure they have an understanding of the consequences and impact of their words, and an opportunity to try to repair the harm they caused to the school community.”

With the threats shared over Discord, Stout told families that “any student or students who are being investigated as authoring the chat will not be in school, pending further investigation, the completion of the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) process, application of disciplinary consequences and a subsequent determination that they can safely return.”

She also urged parents to take a more active role in overseeing their children’s online activity.

“Please, monitor your children’s use of technology,” Stout said. “As parents and guardians, we have a responsibility to know where our children are and to ensure that they are safe. We have the same responsibility in the online world.”