Sixty minutes. That’s how long it took for a private Snapchat message to travel from Kristen Volpe’s phone to the FBI to the deputies standing in her elementary school hallway. On January 29, 2025, the 22-year-old student teacher at John L. Hensey Elementary in Washington, Illinois, vented to her boyfriend and two roommates — three people total — after a student closed her laptop mid-class and wiped her lesson plan. She referenced shooting the student or the school. She meant it as a frustrated joke. Snapchat’s algorithm didn’t get the humor.
No student reported her. No parent. No coworker. The flag was entirely automated. Snapchat’s policy permits voluntary emergency disclosures to law enforcement — no warrant required — when the platform determines imminent harm exists. The algorithm makes that initial call. Think of it like your Ring doorbell deciding to call 911 on its own, except the doorbell is reading your text messages.
That’s good. They should have an obligation to report such things.
The teacher should have known better.
Oh yeah, like how in the late 1930s Garmany instituted a law that citizens were legally obligated to report on neighbors doing anything suspicious and could be imprisoned if they didn’t report on them.
Who was the leader of Germany back then?
…this is also why Germany now has very strict laws protecting people’s privacy, and part of why big tech companies are afraid when the EU rules against them.
That was still the case until the 1990s in Eastern Germany (GDR). And I don’t know how many other places still have it. Now Usa, too.
You don’t see any difference between alerting law enforcement when someone threatens to shoot students, and the Nazis forcing people to rat on each other?
I bet you’d be pissed at Snapchat for not alerting the cops if a school shooting actually happened and they sat on the information.
This is the US. School shootings are a huge problem, and threats of doing it should be taken seriously until it can be determined no threat exists. The teacher fucked around and found that out.
First they came for the people making jokes in private chats, and I did not speak out because I make no jokes in private chats.
Then they came for the anarchists, and I did not speak out because I am not an anarchist.
Then they came for the people organizing protests in private chats, and I did not speak out because I don’t take part in protest.
Then they came for everyone hating billionaires, and I did not speak out because maybe some day I’ll be one.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me
The technology exists now, what makes you think they’re only filtering things you want them to.
It’s wild that Lemmy is actually defending this. This is straight up “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
There are some things you just don’t do. Being a teacher in a country with weekly school shootings and joking about doing it is one of them.
Are you referring to the teacher or yourself?
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Anyone with two brain cells would understand the context. There were no brain cells in here. It was a surveillance state listening in on a private conversation.
People need the ability to snitch when appropriate. People need to be the deciding factor. Not some algorithm watching you at all times.
Maybe just maybe get rid of the 2nd ammendment before you ignore the 4th
Those don’t apply to private businesses
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A lot of people in here have never heard of mandated reporters before. We all act shocked when an incel shoots up a school and we find out that there were thousands of warning signs that were ignored, but when it’s a teacher it’s suddenly OK?
I guarantee you everyone who downvoted me would be screaming for the murder of the CEO if a school shooting had actually happened, and it was discovered the platform sat on the information.
The process worked the way it should have. Police were alerted to a possible threat and promptly responded to verify.
The fact that this time it was just venting doesn’t change the fact that statements like that should be taken seriously until they’re proved not to be.
This was a teacher who was already around students when they made the statement. The response was appropriate.
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Bullshit.
I can joke about your mommy, and even make bad jokes about her, regardless if she’s on her period or not.
Jokes are one of the things that still decides us from the bots.
You can joke all you want, but some jokes have consequences because the outcome of it not being a joke is very bad.
Would you honestly be cool with Snapchat if a school shooting actually happened and they just sat on the information?
I guarantee everyone downvoting my TLC would be calling for the murder of the CEO.
Any threat of shooting children should be taken seriously until it can be determined the threat wasn’t legitimate. This time it was a joke, but next time might not be.
But you do understand that they did not “have the information” in this case, don’t you?
They created a false suspicion.
No, they didn’t. They reported someone saying they were going to shoot school children. It’s up to the police to gather the information at that point. And they acted quickly to do so.
If you overhear someone say, “I’m going to go home and shoot up my kid so I have someone to get high with,” you shouldn’t assume it’s a joke and report it. (This happens a lot, btw).
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Of course it is. You always joke about the things around you. I can’t make jokes about students, because I have none. But I have your mommy.
Big fan of government surveillance, huh?
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Joking is a way to cope, though.
I love my baby dearly and would never do anything to harm her. I still regularly joke with other parents about posting a “baby for sale” sign outside my house. It helps me deal with the lack of sleep, poopsplosions, and, more recently, nipple-bites.
Humour is a reasonably mature coping method, and thought crime should never be a thing.
Thank you.
When school shootings are a weekly thing in a country, it’s probably a good idea to take these things seriously until you can determine whether it’s legitimate.
Or fix the real problems: availability of guns, and lack of appropriate mental health care.
Both need to happen.
We should really have a camera on you right now to see if you’re doing anything dangerous, illegal, or inappropriate.