The message isn't getting through to our kids who are using Twitter and Facebook for today's equivalent of the phoned bomb scare.
Not to dismiss the bullying aspects of "mean girl" personal insults delivered among teens via text message, inappropriate texts are even more serious when they're directed at an entire school or district. They've become the "bomb scare" of the 2010s.
On Sunday, after officials received word of a threatening social media message involving Cherry Hill High School East, the district decided to open the school Monday -- but ordered increased police presence there and more patrols at other Cherry Hill schools.
By morning bell time, police had already searched the school and had sent out an explanation to the "East Community." Superintendent Joseph Meloche's letter stated that a juvenile had been charged with "making a false public alarm." Some accounts stated that the message referred to an intended shooting.
One could argue that it would have been more safe to keep the school shut. But, given what was known at the time, it's difficult to imagine a more appropriate and informative response than the district letter.
Meloche's letter also thanked community members who brought the post to the attention of police. Compared to the old days of anonymous phone calls, the online audience is wider than just one party. Successful intervention still requires that one or more recipient be responsible enough to alert authorities. Fortunately, it happened in this case.
The community letter also brought home another point which, perhaps, should have been emphasized more strongly:
"I urge everyone to be very cautious and to be thoughtful prior to posting anything on social media," Meloche wrote. "The ramifications of our words, written and spoken, are long-reaching."
The superintendent could have added that parents bear ultimate responsibility for what their kids text, post or email. If we're going to equip our kids with the latest phones and tablets from age 6 onward, one part of the operating instructions will not come from Verizon or Apple: Inappropriate communications bring consequences.
At West Deptford High School last week, the media and parents got wind of two racially charged Twitter posts about the school. While not entirely comparable to the Cherry Hill incident, the posts required officials to defuse a tense situation at the school.
Young people may have finally gotten the message that "sexting" can get them in legal trouble, and that posting "drunk pics" of themselves can render them unemployable. Adults haven't done as good a job of warning against posts that threaten violence against a school or demean one of its constituent groups.
If even for practical reasons only, parents should repeat admonishments that a social media perpetrator doesn't stay unidentified for long, and is likely to be prosecuted. That's one big difference from the time when bomb scares came from rotary-dial phone booths.
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