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WORCESTER Central Massachusettsschool officials are warning parents about a viral, nationwide trendwhere students post generalized threats of school violence that is supposed to take place Friday, Dec. 17.

Thetrend began onTikTok, a video social networking app popular with teenagers, and has now spread to other social media apps such as Snapchat.

"My phone is blowing up.I'm getting numerous calls from staff and principals about threats being made in social media through TikTok in particular," Worcester Schools Safety Director Robert F. Pezzella said. "They're being encouraged. Whoever's out there encouraging this, to call in bomb threats, in school shootings, etc. throughout the United States schools, not just in Worcester. ... So we are preparing, we will be vigilant."

Pezzella said that the trend is separate from the threat that was made at Worcester Technical High School on Wednesday.

"There is a lot of unrest in our schools as a result of what they are reading and what they are now finding out from these threats that are occurring for TikTok," Pezzella said. "I can assure you on behalf of the superintendentthat we will continue to keep our schools safe."

Because of the generalized nature of the threat, some districts, such Auburn, acted preemptively to ensure that the threat was not credible, sending letters to assure parents the matter was not being taken lightly.

"That's really what preempted it was to just reassure people that, 'Look,this has happened. This is out there. We're prepared. We've got all of our plans in place. Your kids are safe with us,' " Auburn Superintendent Casey Handfield said.

More: Offensive Instagram site targeting Black students at Fitchburg HS reported as hate crime

He said, as a precaution, there will beincreased police presence inAuburn schools.

Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School Superintendent Paul S. Haughey also published a letter explaining that the school district was aware of the threat and worked with law enforcement to investigate the matter.

"For us, we just wanted to be proactive and make sure people knew that we had anSRO and we made our local law enforcement available and aware that this issue was being brought forward by parents and families in our community," Haughey said.

The letter also let parents and guardians know that the threats were found to have no credibility.

"We wanted to assure the community with my authoring of a letter today that there's no credible threat in our district," he said.

More: US schools increase security in response to TikTok posts warning of shooting, bomb threats

Unlike the generalized threats being shared on TikTok, Dudley Middle School experienced a very specific threat.

A screenshot of a Snapchat message in which the user whose name matchedthat of a student in a neighboring town threatened to shoot up the school reached school administrators, who then reached out to law enforcement. Information about the user's name used in the message has been corrected here.

Although the threat was more targeted, it is still likely part of the social media trend, Charlton Police Chief Daniel Dowd said.

"Wedon't believe it's a credible threat at this time but obviously, out of an abundance of caution, we continue to work it and try to find out more informationbut we don't believe that is as what was reported," Dowd said.

He said there is a possibility that someone used social media to learn the student's name and location, and posed as the student.

"They may not even knowthis person or they may have had," Dowd said. "What I'm saying is that the student mentioned we don't believe has anything to do with this thing other than his name was used."

Charlton police are still investigating the matter as an extra precaution.

Pezzella said that the No. 1 thing that people can do is reportany type of threats, "even if they think it might be ... just an off-color remark."

He said that people can call his direct line or they can call the school principal or the superintendent.

"We take every threat seriously. We have to investigate every threat," Pezzella said. "So if families or the public is hearing anything, then they can report it."

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Central Mass. rattled by viral trend of school violence threats on social media - Worcester Telegram