LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Leavenworth police reported a 19-year-old Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, resident is in custody in connection to a social media threat against Leavenworth High School.
Police said while there is no current threat toward the school, additional officers were at the school Tuesday morning and throughout the day as a precaution.
This comes at the same time Instagram announced it’s making teen accounts private by default as it tries to make the platform safer for children amid a growing backlash against how social media affects young people's lives.
Beginning Tuesday, in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, anyone under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into restrictive teen accounts, and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days.
Teens in the European Union will see their accounts adjusted later this year.
KSHB 41's Elyse Schoenig went to downtown Leavenworth and found a business owner who shared her thoughts after hearing the news.
“Beginning of the school year seems to always happen about this time, and so there was one going around," Kathleen Wade said. "I think it was just a frustration of, overall, just about a 50/50 doubt or belief in whether or not people could keep their kids safe."
Wade owns the Leavenworth Antique Mall in downtown Leavenworth.
"If we'd have had social media when I was younger, I don't know how that would have changed things, except that we learned to read facial expressions, and you had to own up to your comments," she said.
Wade said she's disappointed that people make some of those comments online mindlessly, but she hopes that people stop and think when reading the ones that matter.
—
KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers issues surrounding the cost of health care. Share your story idea with Elyse.
