A viral TikTok trend warning of nationwide school violence on Friday forced school officials at Zephyrhills High School to take necessary precautions to keep students and staff safe.
School officials were notified earlier this week of the TikTok challenge that was receiving national attention that was somewhat inciting violence Friday at schools. Some parents opted to keep students home today
ZHS Principal Dr. Christina Stanley said a TikTok challenge a few months ago that promoted vandalism in schools has many of the Zephyrhills High School Students looking at the current challenge as nonsense.
School officials don’t have the luxury of making the same judgment.
Stanley said today, the TikTok challenge inciting violence was locally reposted and mentioned Zephyrhills.
“We became aware that was reposted and there was potential of a threat on campus,” Stanley said. “We followed protocol. We did control dismissal and we contacted the Sheriff’s Office. We tried to figure out where the threat might be, if there was one and do everything we can to keep those kids safe.”
The job of administrator has changed in recent years, but child safety remains the top priority.
“It’s definitely a huge part of what I do,” she said. “I was really proud of our kids and our staff because they did exactly what we drill for today. Nowadays, we can’t take any chances. We will investigate and follow through with protocols for every single thing just to make sure we did everything to keep everybody safe.”