Since its emergence onto the social media scene, Twitter has become a resource for information spreading in crisis situations across the world. For instance, during the political crisis in Egypt, the website was used to spread information to the world from inside the cut-off country.
And so, when the intruder alert message went off on Dec. 6, Lafayette students and staff were put in a similar situation. Isolated in their classrooms and unaware of the situation, the students turned to Twitter to find out what was going on.
Through it spread both fact and fiction, Twitter became the main source of information during the alert. Beginning as the alarm sounded at 9:52 a.m., students broke out the iPods and smartphones to tell the world exactly what was happening or what they thought was happening, during the alert.
Senior Carly Farinella was in class checking her account throughout the incident and said maybe that free-flowing information was not such a good thing.
“I think Twitter actually made everyone freak out because someone had a police scanner and was saying that the intruder had a gun, when really it was a whole other story. There were all these rumors going around so it made everything seems a lot worse than it really was,” Farinella said.
In language arts teacher Jean Peters’ 2nd Hour AP Art History class, Twitter was the main source of information for both Peters and her students. She found the information to be helpful.
“I did allow my students to take out their cell phones because they needed a light source to finish their tests. So obviously from there I left myself open and allowed them to use cell phones. But [Twitter] became an information source and was one of the ways that I felt, as a teacher, as well as a class, that we better understood what was happening at Lafayette, and there was some security in knowing that. Though, certainly, the ‘M-16 in the library’ is a good example of how we all have to be somewhat responsible about who we listen to and who we follow,” Peters said.
The spread of rumors through Twitter may have caused more harm than good in some cases, with students making false claims and alerting parents based on false information.
“It’s probably accurate that parents were receiving texts or tweets about weapons in the building. People were sending wrong information home. There was no tactical team involved; it was basically the St. Louis county police. There were five of them. They did an intruder practice and tactical maneuvers where they were in a certain formation…and then they proceeded to sweep through our building for safety. But we were the ones that called them. I don’t know that parents called 911, but it was not parents that sent them here,” Principal John Shaughnessy said.
Shaughnessy continued, “Student phones, whether they were texting, calling or tweeting caused a lot more confusion and a lot more false information that was within our building as well as outside in the community. I couldn’t react and let everybody know what was going on because I was fully involved in the investigation. By the time I was able to get on a computer and let everybody know what happened, they had already received continual misinformation and erroneous facts about the event.”
Shaughnessy said of the event, “It was not a prank, it was not done with any malicious intent. It was student trying to dial an outside number.”
However, regardless of the validity of each of the individual tweets, students certainly managed to spread the word, sometimes making light of a serious situation.
This is the timeline of events according to Twitter:
9:52 a.m. -Intruder…is this actually happening? #intruder2011 -@SCHOUbaru
9:56 a.m. -Just walked in school n got thrown into the welcome center -@abbharb
9:59 a.m. -Get ready to fight Lancers #braceyourselves -@LHSSuperFans
10:00 a.m. -I’d like to apologize for my mom, sometimes she forgets to sign in #whoops -@Nick_Jagger19
10:06 a.m. -Cops in hallways with guns drawn. -@xMARCsTheSpot15
10:07 a.m. -I love you mom #intruderalert11 -@iM_unstopABELL
10:10 a.m. -I have a toothbrush and I’m not afraid to use it -@RWD40
10:10 a.m. -All the lights in the hallway are now turned off… #intruder2011 -@SCHOUbaru
10:10 a.m. -More cops with guns in the building. Outside our classroom -@xMARCsTheSpot15
10:13 a.m. -In our bunker of desks. Hold me. -@MackenzieVick
10:13 a.m. -Sweet the police told me to go back to my car and I’m not allowed to leave the school, I hope I see the intruder -@DNeLL1126
10:18 a.m. -Breaking News: secretary calling rooms to check status of school #intruder11 #inthedark -@LHSimage
10:19 a.m. -They just said they wanna clear the building #goinghome -@abbharb
10:23 a.m. -@wrbuie Nope, nothing. We got a call to see if everyone was okay but no word -@AlexanderVander
10:29 a.m. -Apparently there’s cops that got the school on lock #intruder11 -@dacorv27
10:30 a.m. -No worries guys Melissa has a police scanning app…guns police helicopters…#goinghome? -@Sydohhh
10:31 a.m. -If anyone has any outside communication…Please let us know! Babe. Babe! What’s it like out there!! #intruder11 -@DommyPrimeTime
10:32 a.m. -#cops #assaultrifles #lockdown #intruder -@mags_bowman
10:36 a.m. -Fourteen cop cars and a blockade? We need to ID this guy and have the students #bringhimdown -@mags_bowman
10: 39 a.m. -Lights coming back on #didtheycatchhim -@mags_bowman
10:42 a.m. -St. Louis County police say they searched Lafayette High School following an intruder alert and found nothing. -@ksdknews
10:47 a.m. -all clear! -@hmboxy
With the all clear given over the intercom, Twitter calmed down as students presumably got back to their studies, but not after some information and rumors had been spread.
