FBI warns of criminal consequences for making hoax threats about school shootings

A Houston ISD bus driver leaves the HISD Northwest Shop on the 6300 block of Pinemont Drive as he headed out on a afternoon route Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, in Houston. Hundreds of Houston ISD students had their school bus service interrupted Thursday morning after numerous bus drivers refused to drive their routes over a pay dispute. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) less A Houston ISD bus driver leaves the HISD Northwest Shop on the 6300 block of Pinemont Drive as he headed out on a afternoon route Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, in Houston. Hundreds of Houston ISD students had their ... more Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff / Houston Chronicle Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close FBI warns of criminal consequences for making hoax threats about school shootings 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

After local schools received a wave of hoax threats in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, the FBI Houston Division is launching an awareness campaign about the consequences of using social medial to send phony threats.

At a press conference Tuesday, Special Agent in Charge Perrye Turner announced the launch of #ThinkBeforeYouPost alongside local law enforcement agencies and various school district police chiefs.

“The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness regarding these emerging threats,” Turner said. “We want to encourage kids to stop, and parents to get engaged and encourage their kids to stop.”

Turner said that any hoax threat will be taken seriously and investigated, and “the person responsible will be identified and prosecuted federally or at the state level.” Even if the person responsible is a juvenile, he said, they will be charged — even in federal court — and their record will not be sealed.

The FBI Houston Division provided cursory numbers of hoax threats they investigated in 2017 — 124 — and in 2018 — 314, as of Monday. Spokesperson Christina Garza said the rise in threats, of which at least 90 percent are found to be false, has been attributed to the Parkland shooting.

In May, 21-year-old Luis Antonio Rivera allegedly posted on Facebook that he intended “to shoot everyone and kill everyone” at a Houston Community College Campus, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Rivera was charged with making a terroristic threat after he was interviewed by an FBI agent about the incident.

Rivera’s post came amid an uptick in threats made towards schools around the nation, particularly in the wake of the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. that killed 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.

In February, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office announced the investigation of two separate school threats and arrested two juveniles as a result. The threats came after seven similar threats fielded by Houston-area schools between time of the Parkland shooting and Feb. 16.

Such threats surged by 300 percent in the month after the Parkland shooting, according to the Educator's School Safety Network, which tracks shooting threats. More than 45 percent of those threats came from social media, the network reported.

“Schools shut down and teachers and students lose precious learning time as a result of these threats,” Turner said. “Making false threats drains school and law enforcement resources unnecessarily and cost taxpayers a lot of money.”