Ohio students have been arrested for allegedly making statements threatening violence in their schools amid a wave of similar threats on social media across the country, Fox 19 reports.

In Warren County, Ohio, District Attorney Dave Fornshell said Thursday authorities were already arresting several students for making threatening statements.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine at the time these statements are made whether they are just bad ‘jokes’ or credible threats. So when it comes to the safety of our children, our office will always treat them like children, ”Fornshell wrote on Facebook.

“We are already in the process of arresting several Warren County students for threatening statements, and I would certainly prefer not to see that number increase.”

Authorities across the country were closely monitoring unspecified threats of school violence made in viral TikTok videos on Friday, according to Bloomberg.

The videos are generally said to make no reference to any particular school, but to suggest that students are making bombs or threatening to shoot at schools on Friday, USA Today reports.

However, some authorities said they had received threats specifically mentioning local schools.

In Mason City, Ohio, the public school system had received “more than 170 tips that included screenshots of social media posts purporting to threaten Mason High School,” according to a school district Facebook post on Friday morning, WXIX reports. -TV.

Schools are urging parents to talk to their children about TikTok videos and say something if they see anything suspicious or threatening.

Schools in California, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas closed on Friday in response to threats, while schools in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Montana, New York and Pennsylvania stepped up the police presence, according to USA Today.

Students from Texas, Florida and California were arrested this week for allegedly threatening violence or bringing weapons to school, but it is not clear if these incidents are linked to the general threat from TikTok, reports USA Today.

Friday’s TikTok threat comes after a deadly rampage at a Michigan school in November that left four students dead and eight others injured, according to CNN.

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