Plainview ISD warns of cat in the hat social media trend

The district issued a formal safety notice after the trend began circulating, though officials did not specify which platform the threats were appearing on or what the trend instructs students to do. What is clear is that Plainview ISD is treating it seriously enough to go public with a warning rather than handle it quietly.

For families in the Plainview area, the message is straightforward: what gets posted online does not stay online. School districts across Texas have increasingly treated social media threats as real-world offenses, and Plainview ISD is signaling it will do the same. Terroristic threat charges under Texas law can apply to juveniles, meaning students could face consequences well beyond a school suspension.

Lubbock-area parents should know this trend is close enough to home to be worth a conversation with their kids tonight. Plainview sits about 45 miles north of Lubbock on US-87, and trends spreading through one district's student population rarely stop at a county line.

Texas law defines a terroristic threat as any statement intended to place a person in fear of imminent bodily injury. Criminal penalties apply regardless of whether the person making the threat ever intended to follow through.