TONASKET – In a concerning incident that has raised some alarms, Tonasket School District informed the public that a group of elementary school students have been receiving threatening messages via Snapchat.

A fifth-grade student brought the alarming messages to the attention of a ParaPro and their bus driver, after school Wednesday, Oct. 30.

According to Superintendent Kevin Young, the threatening messages started after several fifth-grade students accepted a friend request from a stranger on Snapchat.

The students tried to guess the identity of the user.

“They had a couple of screenshots that they shared with adults. After interviewing several students, it appears it started with two fifth graders accepting a friend request from someone they didn’t know,” said Young.

Snapchat, a popular social media platform among children and teenagers, allows users to send photos, videos, and messages that disappear after they are viewed. While this feature is a major draw for many young users, it also poses significant challenges in monitoring inappropriate or harmful content.

“It started with, ‘Who are you?’ Eventually though, there were threatening messages sent,” said the superintendent.

Young said there is an ongoing investigation around the incident. At that point, the anonymous account started to request to chat with others.

“The confusing part is once there were inappropriate messages sent, they were shared a lot amongst two groups of fifth graders. It’s hard to tell who actually received them or who forwarded them,” said Young.

The messages, of a threatening nature, contained three inappropriate photos of weapons.

The superintendent said he is not aware of anything like this happening in the past at the school. He added, law enforcement is working alongside the district to solve the mystery of the anonymous sender’s identity and have shown a reassuring presence during the situation

.