School students charged with 'terroristic threats' following 'joke TikTok challenge'

In a news statement released on Friday, Oldham County Police revealed that three Kentucky teens were charged with terroristic threatening after they had participated in a TikTok challenge.

Investigators said that three separate incidents on Aug. 14, 15, and 17 which took place at Oldham County High School, were related to a TikTok challenge that encourages students to record a video of themselves telling a teacher there was a bomb or gun in their backpack as a “joke.”

Two 15-year-olds were charged with terroristic threatening in the second degree, police said, and another 15-year-old was charged with terroristic threatening in the third degree. Due to the teens being minors, their names and other details that could be possible identifiers, weren’t released by authorities.

In an attempt to prevent teens from participating in the TikTok challenge, Oldham County Schools had sent out a warning to families the previous week. They let students know that they would face “serious consequences” if they took part in the challenge.

“In addition to school-level discipline, students are prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law for making a threat to a public school,” said the memo, obtained by WDRB.com.

The memo, which was shared with parents, also revealed that the three students have been indefinitely suspended from classes and ordered to complete a mental health screening before returning to school.

This is not the first TikTok challenge to pose harm and possibility of arrest. Authorities have warned families numerous times in the past about certain TikTok trends, such as chewing gum that contains the same ingredient as pepper spray, car theft, or boiling raw chicken in NyQuil.

The TikTok videos have been removed at the district’s request

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