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ACCUSATIONS APPEARED TO BE TRUE. DERRY POLICE SAY IT STARTED WITH A POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALLEGING THAT 12 FEMALE PINKERTON ACADEMY STUDENTS HAD BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A MALE STUDENT. >> STUDENTS HAD GOT THAT MESSAGE RATHER QUICKLY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA. IT HAD BEEN SHARED MULTIPLE TIMES BEFORE IT GOT TO US. ANDY: THE SCHOOL SENT OUT A NOTICE THAT IT HAD BEEN MADE AWARE OF THE ALLEGATIONS AND WERE COOPERATING WITH AUTHORITIES, WHO WERE LAUNCHING AN INVESTIGATION. BUT POLICE SAY NO ONE EVER REPORTED ANY OF THESE ALLEGATIONS DIRECTLY TO SCHOOL OFFICIALS OR LAW ENFORCEMENT. >> IT WOULD BE VERY ODD THAT 12 DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE SOMETHING OCCUR AND NOBODY WOULD TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT IT. THE SOCIAL MEDIA WAS REALLY WHERE THAT CAME FROM FOR US TO LOOK AT TO BEGIN WITH. AND SOCIAL MEDIA SPREAD THAT QUICKLY, LEADING TO OTHER THINGS THAT OCCURRED AT THE SCHOOL. ANDY: FRIDAY, BEFORE THE POLICE HAD MADE A DETERMINATION, STUDENTS STAGED A WALK OUT TO SUPPORT THOSE THEY THOUGHT HAD BEEN VICTIMIZED. POLICE SAY THEY CONDUCTED DOZENS OF INTERVIEWS AND BY EARLY AFTERNOON, CONCLUDED THAT NONE OF IT WAS TRUE. >> OUR INVESTIGATION HAS CONCLUDED AT LEAST AT THIS POINT WITH THE INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE AFTER TALKING TO ALL THE STUDENTS WE COULD TALK TO, THERE ARE NO VICTIMS, NO SUSPECTS AND NO DETAILS OF ANY SPECIFIC CRIME TO HAVE OCCURRED THERE. ANDY: POLICE SAY THEIR MESSAGE FROM THIS INCIDENT IS SHARE WITH THEM BEFORE YOU SHARE ON SOCIAL

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Derry police investigating accusations of sexual assault at Pinkerton Academy said Friday it appears no crimes happened, and the allegations were just a rumor on social media.The Pinkerton Academy headmaster sent a letter to the school community Thursday that said the school was investigating allegations of sexual assault among students. Police said Friday it appears that the accusations stemmed from an unfounded Snapchat message that was being shared throughout the school."Students had got that message rather quickly through social media," Capt. Vern Thomas said. "It had been shared multiple times before it got to us."The message claimed that 12 female students had been sexually assaulted by a male student, and when the incidents were reported to school staff members, the school took no action, police said.The school resource officer at Pinkerton said staff members indicated that no such reports had been made."It would be very odd that 12 different people have something occur and nobody would tell us anything about it," Thomas said. "The social media was really where that came from for us to look at to begin with and social media spread that, rather quickly leading to other things that occurred at the school."The officer spoke to the student who initially reposted the message, and she said she didn't know who wrote it and had no personal information about the allegations, police said. Derry police said they spoke to dozens of students who had shared the post or had protested outside the school Friday, and no one could produce the names of possible victims or suspects.The walkout was staged by students to support those they thought were victimized. "Our investigation has concluded, at least at this point with the information that we have, after talking to all the students we could talk to, that there are no victims up there, no suspect and no details of any specific crime to have occurred there," Thomas said.Police said they encouraged students to come forward privately if they believed they had been the victim of a crime. They said social media posts about possible crimes should be reported to law enforcement agencies, rather than shared online.