A Cochrane teenager is in serious trouble following a social media post that threatened violence against students in town.
The 15-year-old Cochrane High School student was charged with uttering threats when he posted a photo of himself with ammunition, accompanied by a caption that warned students to stay home from school. Posted to Snapchat, a platform that only stores content for a short time, it appeared for long enough to garner public and police attention.
Was it meant as a joke? Was it a serious threat? That information is still being discerned. If it was a legitimate threat then it is fortunate someone had the wits to get the information to police and prevent a potentially deadly scenario. Hopefully the student also gets help for the underlying issues that provoke such a violent post.
If it was a joke, not only was it not funny it was pure stupidity.
RCMP Sgt. Jeff Campbell put it best when he told the Cochrane Eagle, “Given the present day sensitivity, mass shootings are at the forefront of everyone’s minds and law enforcement needs to take this serious,” he said.
Campbell added that 30 years ago the RCMP might have been able to brush the photo off as a joke, but with the news inundated by mass shootings and school shootings, those days are gone.
While Canada has been more fortunate than the US when it comes to school gun violence, we must stay vigilant to prevent similar tragic incidents here. Unfortunately, for one Cochrane teen that means criminal charges and possibly a criminal record depending on the outcome.
While it might seem obvious to many that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, many seem to shed their social inhibitions online.
Social media and the connectivity of technology have consumed the lives of young people. In 2015, the Pew Research Centre found that 92 per cent of teens – 13 to 17 – reported going online daily. Included in that number were 24 per cent who reported being online constantly.
Social media has become more than a cultural phenomenon, it is a social institution. Unfortunately the speed of its transition from fad to what can be described as a social need means it exists in near anarchy. While the fact it seems to be devoid of rules might be part of its allure, social media does not exist outside of society and more and more people are beginning to face the consequences of their online personas.
Politicians kicked out of office or forced to resign, people losing their jobs, defamation suits and criminal charges demonstrate a slow creep toward order with in the realm of social media.
Perhaps online etiquette should become a greater focus of parents and educators in order to impart the important lesson that right and wrong are the same online and offline.
Criminal records are no joke, even for young offenders. Youth records can limit a person’s opportunity for travel, participation in certain sporting events and can limit access to post secondary education.
It’s time for people to start using a little common sense when they log onto their social media accounts. You might feel safe tucked away behind your keyboard with only your computer screen to answer to, but your actions have consequences. That is a lesson one teenager just learned the hard way and hopefully it sunk in for him, his peers, and the rest of us.
