Students' Snapchat Posts Of Fake Guns Lead To Real Investigations

PARK RIDGE, IL — Photographs of replica guns shared social media by Maine South High School students led to a two police investigations last month in Park Ridge, Pioneer Press reported. Images appearing to show real guns – one on a table and one in a person's lap – were reported to school staff on March 2 and March 23, according to Deputy Chief Duane Mellema. Police interviewed two students, both residents of Harwood Heights and did not find any evidence that a crime had occurred.

With increased concern about guns in schools, police promised to take any reports of potential threats seriously.

“Usually, the young people will say, ‘We were just joking around,’" Chief Frank Kaminski told the Herald-Advocate. "Well, these are not jokes."

Mellema said police need to tread carefully around issues of constitutionally protected speech without any criminal intent. In such situations, he told the paper that police can only advise people that "given the current climate, those aren't the best posting to put up."

Last year, two Park Ridge boys – one of them a 15-year-old Maine South student – were arrested after they allegedly recorded a Snapchat video holding a gun and threatening to shoot at summer school. Pioneer Press reported Cook County prosecutors declined to pursue any criminal charges in the case.

Read more from the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate

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