National Social Media Threats
Spokane Valley Deputies received information of a social media post referencing “Valley High School” and a threat of a shooting. Over the past seven days or more, similar threats referencing “Valley High School” have been made in at least four states. Spokane Valley and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Deputies and Detectives have been investigating these threats since the information was reported and have NOT found any connection between these threats and our local schools.
Saturday, two citizens reported a Facebook post referencing the threat of a shooting at “Valley High School”. Spokane Valley Deputies began an investigation assisted by Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Detectives who have been in contact with law enforcement agencies in additional states and national information fusion centers.
Since there are several schools which use “Valley” in their name, our local school districts were notified of the threat since no actual school was specifically named.
Several similar threats have been made and spread over social media over the past week in at least four states. During the investigation, contact has been made with several agencies in several states as we worked to find the origin of the social media posts. At this time, no information has been found linking these social media threats to any of our local schools.
Unfortunately, social media threats like these happen far too often and cause fear in our community and across our nation. We take these threats seriously and we will continue to work together with our school officials and our partnering law enforcement agencies to keep our schools and community safe.
We thank these citizens who reported these social media posts and we urge everyone in our community to report threats or suspicious behavior immediately.