Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/620580
I searched for more information on Twitter. (Parents need to be in the cyberspots where our kids congregate. Look around at the tweens and teens - even when they're right in front of us, they're in a different universe they hold in their hands. Most moms and dads linger on Facebook, posting updates of what they're eating so the kids have fled, gathering behind the walls of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat… wherever the 'rental units aren't.) This is what many kids saw at 9:25 that night: Just after midnight I found this: The last thought many of us had before going to sleep was Columbine. It made for a restless night. I got the text at 10:45 pm, as I was getting ready to go to bed Wednesday, November 18. It was from a friend and fellow mom. Early the next morning, I sent screen shots of the above to my friends and moms of my son's friends then hopped onto Facebook, particularly the Yucaipa Bulletin, to see what other parents had discovered. As dawn broke, the news was spreading like wildfire… but it was worse than wildfire, because wildfire consumes fuel and moves on or goes out. This — this social media frenzy — started with a spark, a rumor, a threat from an unknown source without validation. Then it exploded. It was fueled by speculation and morphed as theories were formed, generating its own fuel to keep burning and growing. By 7 am there were over 400 comments in a news feed on the Yucaipa Bulletin about the threat. The threat itself was scary enough — the response coupled with the rumors that were being accepted as fact were overwhelming. There was no word from police or the school district. Just hundreds of self-appointed reporters contributing to the story. Not only were parents keeping their high school kids home - kids of all ages were staying home in droves. The panic was full blown and spreading, changing, evolving. It seemed more intense because it was happening to us, to our small town, to our Yucaipa.