published28. May 2022, 08:22
Shortly before the school massacre in Texas, a student in Rapperswil hung a threatening message in the toilet. The police tracked down the author.
Reason: A threatening message was hung in the toilet. As it turned out, the perpetrator of the killing spree threat was a 12-year-old schoolboy.
According to the canton police, he wanted to produce a viral video for Tiktok.
A Tiktok trend from the USA has reached Switzerland. Last Monday evening, the school management of the Herrenberg primary school in Rapperswil-Jona reported to the St. Gallen cantonal police that a threatening letter had been hung up in a student toilet. It announced a killing spree, which caused an uproar among the students and their parents.
When the canton police arrived the next morning, they were able to identify a twelve-year-old schoolboy as the perpetrator of the amok threat. The cantonal police of St. Gallen confirmed the incident. According to police spokesman Florian Schneider, the student wanted to play a “prank”. He explained that he was inspired by a Tiktok trend. Videos with such threats keep going viral on the social media platform.
Student gets away with it
There is no connection to the Texas school massacre that killed 19 children, since the threat was posted before the US school went on a rampage.
Nevertheless: “The boy gave everyone a mighty fright with this action,” says Schneider. Now it’s about getting the twelve-year-old back on the right track. “We had an intense conversation with him.” No criminal prosecution is planned at the moment.
Rampage threats as a Tiktok trend
Rampage threats have become a regular sport on Tiktok. At the end of last year, videos were circulating on the platform announcing school shootings for December 17. There was also a flood of reaction videos: “POV, your parents are forcing you to stay at home because of the December 17 trend,” says one post. «Guys, stay safe; I stay at home », says another. “Hope everyone is doing well.” Officials across the country also responded to the viral posts, but the threats turned out to be false.
Threatening letters have also been posted on toilet walls. Also last December, a bomb threat was left on the Hideaway in Philadelphia against a school.