Plainfield police beef up presence in 2 schools following social media threats

Plainfield police increased their presence at two schools in response to two threats of violence that came from social media platforms.

One of the threats was about “East High School” but was not specific to Plainfield East High School, according to Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek.

“This message has apparently made its way across the region and I believe even beyond state lines, with again no specific East high school being identified,” Konopek said.

Out of an abundance of caution, police increased their presence at the school building on Thursday, Konopek said.

The other threat was specific to Plainfield North High School.

“We have identified the individuals involved and have made contact with them and continue to investigate, but do not believe there was any attempt to follow through with this threat,” Konopek said.

The police presence at Plainfield North was also increased out of an abundance of caution, Konopek said.

Plainfield School District 202 spokesman Tom Hernandez shared several messages that school officials sent out to parents about the situation.

On Thursday, a “hold in place” was implemented at Plainfield East for about 10 minutes to give police time to investigate a “possible threat” made against “East High School” that emanated from SnapChat, according to the message to parents.

“Students were never in harm’s way and instruction continued throughout,” school officials said.

Plainfield North Principal Ross Draper’s message to parents said there was a post on a Discord server “with a comment about a school shooting taking place at Plainfield North on May 15, 2022.”

Discord is an instant messaging platform that is popular in the video game community.

“The Plainfield police were immediately contacted to investigate the post. It has been addressed by the police and school administration,” Draper said.

Draper said that since the post was addressed, rumors on social media suggested that incident would take place Thursday.

Draper said that based on what police and administration discovered in their investigation, Plainfield North is safe and would operate as normal.

In a second message, Draper said that if he believed the school was not safe, students and staff would not be in the building.

“As a precaution, I requested additional officers on campus to help students, parents, and staff feel more comfortable,” Draper said. “We will also continue with our normal procedure to secure doors and closely monitor entry into the building.”

In October, the Plainfield police determined a similarly vague threat made on social media to shoot up “Central High School” was false.

The hoax was perpetrated from Missouri, according to police.