Leah Granskog, Story Editor
Graphic by Leah Granskog
On Sunday, April 19, a series of mean-spirited posts about NCHS students arose from an anonymous TikTok account. After students alerted the administration about the account, law enforcement was able to investigate. While the content of the posts was found to be not credible by the New Canaan Police Department (NCPD) and the FBI, the following day, on Monday, April 20, NCHS experienced hundreds more students absent than on a typical school day.
NCHS Principal Bill Egan believes that students’ willingness to speak up and alert the administration to these harmful posts prevented the incident from escalating further. Their actions reflect Sandy Hook Promise‘s “Say Something” initiative, which, through annual lessons, encourages students to be upstanders and report any possible signs of violence, suicide, or self-harm to a trusted adult. “I want to thank the students who stepped forward with information that allowed the NCPD and FBI to quickly identify the source of these posts,” Mr. Egan said. “Your bravery in ‘saying something’ was the key to resolving this swiftly.”
Keeping NCHS Students Safe
According to NCHS School Resource Officer Shane Gibson, the first step in effectively dealing with the account was trying to determine the origin of the posts. “Anytime a post becomes a possible threat, our job as law enforcement is to determine who owns the account,” Officer Gibson said. “So, the way we start doing that is either through a search warrant or an ex parte. Additionally, we have privileges as law enforcement to actually contact the social media account and ask for information.”
After locating the IP address and gathering more information about the account, law enforcement was able to determine that the account was a fake profile made by an individual residing in another state. Because of this, the posts were deemed not credible.
However, to ease anxieties and ensure the safety of the NCHS community, various precautions were taken at NCHS on the Monday following the incident. In addition to direct communication between school administrators and law enforcement, extra checks of the school buildings were conducted, and a morning meeting was held with teachers to ensure all faculty members understood the situation.
Furthermore, additional police officers were stationed at each elementary school, Saxe Middle School, and New Canaan High School. “We had multiple officers at every single school within the district as well as detectives,” Officer Gibson said. “While presence alone is one of those things that can initially increase anxiety, it also helps show that we are taking things seriously, which can help calm people down.”
The Need for Digital Safety
While students’ readiness to speak up allowed the administration and law enforcement to respond to this issue quickly, this incident also raised concerns about student safety on social media. Mr. Egan explains how the account was able to collect information about NCHS students by forming fake online connections with them. “In some cases, our students had been engaging with this account since middle school, sharing intimate personal details with someone they believed to be a peer,” Mr. Egan said. “This individual was able to cause widespread distress because they had spent years embedded in our students’ digital circles.”
With the rising popularity of social media platforms, cybercrime and a lack of digital safety are becoming a growing concern. According to Tessian, a cybersecurity company, 84% of people post personal information on their social media accounts weekly. This includes names and photos of children, birthdates, and job status updates. Even if these details may seem safe to post, they can contribute to cybercriminals gaining an individual’s valuable personal information and forming a more complete picture of their targets.
How to Stay Safe Online
In an email to students following the incident, Mr. Egan expressed how this event represented “a hard lesson in digital safety” and should serve as a reminder to students of the importance of staying careful and diligent online.
Many students at NCHS agree that this incident helped to emphasize the necessity of being safe on social media. For example, NCHS junior Emma Greenhut hopes this experience encourages students to think more critically about what they post online and who they accept as followers. “I hope other students learn that online safety is something everyone should take seriously, even if they already think they are being careful,” she said. “Small things like checking followers, keeping accounts private, and thinking before posting can make a difference. This incident shows how some people use information found on the internet for the wrong reasons and emphasizes how important it is to be safe online and not share a lot of information.”
Officer Gibson believes that the best way to prevent these incidents is by limiting the use of these devices and instead engaging with the real world. “At the end of the day, what matters most?” Officer Gibson said. “The friends on these devices that we have or the actual good connections we have in person? The more we put these down and actually see reality, the better. So, unplug a little bit. We all need it.”
