A Maryland county is investigating racialized threats made against Black middle school students by white students on social media. Law enforcement found images on Instagram and Snapchat that featured three young people holding what appears to be firearms, and captions that suggested the group wanted to kill Black students at the school.
According to the Frederick News Post, on the morning of Wednesday, March 9, deputies from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and several school resource officers were notified by a parent of disturbing posts on social media that apparently were created to intimidate Black students at the school.
FCSO immediately communicated with the public by posting on Facebook updates on their investigation surrounding the posts, saying that the department “takes all related racial, religious, and ethnic incidents seriously and will follow established protocols and laws to investigate each incident and will pursue criminal charges as appropriate.”
The sheriff’s office maintained that this incident was a “top priority” for them. Once it was determined that there was no “immediate active threat inside the school,” deputies “continued with its criminal investigation,” and identified three white eighth graders as the suspects involved in the incident.
After speaking with the students and their parents and/or guardians, officers conducted a sweep of their bedrooms, located the firearms that were depicted in the pictures, and determined that some of them “were fake” but one was real.
As a part of the investigation, the students relinquished their cellphones to the deputies, allowing them to “forensically downloaded the phones, and the contents are currently under review.”
Information initially gathered from scanning the phones was the approximate period around when the shots were taken. It was determined that over the last two months, January and February, the kids shot the flicks and had only recently decided to post them.
The FCSO arrested the trio accused of being responsible for the posts, but because they are minors their names have been withheld from the public.
On Thursday, March 10, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and the Frederick County Public Schools conducted a joint press conference to update the community about the racialized threats.
Sheriff Chuck Jenkins took the podium during the press conference and assured those watching of the importance of every citizen living in the town.
“Middleton is a very close-knit community,” he said. “It is too strong of a community to allow this to divide us. We can’t and we won’t tolerate these types of threats, messages that disrupt or create fear in our community.”
“Let me be very clear … the students responsible are going to face some serious consequences.”
The sheriff said that a lot of misinformation is being shared on social media and asked students and parents to refrain from posting about “the threats.” He also asked them not to identify the students (victims or perpetrators) by name on social media.
Lt. Jason Deater shared that three students will be charged with a hate crime because they targeted African-Americans, “motivated in whole or in part by the group’s race.” One student will be charged with possession of a firearm by a minor because his gun was real.
He said that the investigation is continuing, and they are receiving messages from Black students that the three boys reached out to directly to intimidate.
Dr. Eric Louérs-Phillips, the executive director of public affairs for the school district, also spoke and said, “Racism in FCPS is unacceptable and the hate speech directed to the Black community is unacceptable.”
“We know that there was no immediate threat,” he continued. “The posting of those images and the language found in those images caused harm. They caused students and staff and families of our students to feel unsafe.”
The day after the press conference, the community rallied.
On Friday, March 11, NBC News 4 reports, about one hundred people gathered in support of the African-American families impacted by the threats.
One Black student said it was “honestly shocking that someone would post that, especially at a school like this. Usually, we are all unified.” A white student standing next to him said that he hopes that as a community they “can stay together” and one day look back and “laugh” at the incident.
The sheriff’s office posted a notice about the protest on Facebook post, saying, “Expect a heavy delay around Middletown Middle School this morning as parents rally in support of recent events.”
White parents immediately jumped to the comments to upbraid the department as soft-pedaling the motive behind the demonstration.
One comment read, “We are supporting our african american friends, neighbors, loved ones and rallying together to show support for our community.”
Onother said, “Very poor choice of words. Not ‘supporting’ recent events. How about ‘not tolerating racism?’”
