Durfee Principal Responds to Social Media Threat Against School

FALL RIVER — Extra precaution is planned for Durfee High School Friday morning, after an anonymous threat sent to students over social media made a threat toward the school.

An image from a user listed as "anonymous" followed by a devil emoji was sent to students over Snapchat. After some incorrectly spelled profanities, it said "don go to durfee tomorrow finna be Florida pt 2." The message appeared to suggest that a copycat school shooting would take place at the school, following Wednesday's massacre in Florida that claimed 17 lives.

At 7:42 p.m. Thursday, Durfee Principal Matt Desmarais posted the following voice message to the School Messenger system.

"Good evening, this is Matt Desmarais, principal of B.M.C. Durfee High School, calling with an important message. We are aware of a recent anonymous post on social media, making threats to our school tomorrow. We received this information from several of our students, who chose to do the right thing by reporting it to us. Working in collaboration with the Fall River Police Department, we have no evidence to support this as a credible threat. However, out of an abundance of caution, we will have an elevated police presence on campus tomorrow. We will be conducting bag checks on everyone entering the building. Additional security and district personnel will be present to assist. Also, there will be other random, unannounced security measures in place. Safety and security is our primary mission every day. It takes the efforts of our entire community to achieve this ideal. I want to reinforce the statement, 'see something, say something.' This cannot be stressed enough. I am appreciative of those who brought this to our attention today. It is the students who choose to do the right thing each and every day who truly represent the real Durfee High School. Thank you."

Some parents were posting on social media Thursday night that they were keeping their children out of Durfee on Friday.