A 12-year-old is facing criminal charges after she posted a message on Instagram with gun, bomb and knife emojis.
The girl – from Fairfax, Virginia – was accused of ‘threatening her school’ after staff at at Sidne Lanier Middle School were told about the Instagram post which partly read:
Killing ?
‘meet me in the library Tuesday’
? ? ?
The use of these emojis was deemed serious enough for the school to call the police, who then traced the IP address of the post back to the girl.
Despite a spokesperson for the schools authority saying the threat wasn’t credible, she was still charged.
According to her mother, the girl made the post because she was getting bullied at school. She said: “She’s a good kid. She’s never been in trouble before. I don’t think it’s a case where there should have been charges.”
The girl is scheduled to make an appearance in juvenile court on the charges at the end of the month, but it remains unclear if this case has since been resolved as hearings are not open to the public.
Despite the message sounding rather threatening, it’s now up to the judge to determine whether the emojis she posted were simply down to anger or something more sinister.
