Seeing or sharing threats posted online may result in charges

MONTGOMERY & SCHENECTADY COUNTIES, N.Y. (NEWS10) -The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office reported to Fort Plain Central School after a student allegedly posted a threat on Snapchat last week. Sheriff Jeff Smith says thanks to the child's mother quickly reporting that threat to the police, the boy was caught at school without much alarm.

But that doesn’t always happen. "Many times when these threats happen, it gets shared from people to people and creates a huge headache," stated Sheriff Smith.

That’s because when posts are shared online, it becomes harder to find the original post. And with it comes more stress on students and teachers. So, a bill from Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara's office hopes to stop the spread of threats.

"It’s going to enhance public safety because it’s going to require immediate reporting of these threats made against schools or public institutions over social media," explained Santabarbara.

That means if you see a threat on platforms like Instagram or Snapchat - even in your email, you would have to let the police know. NEWS10's Anthony Krolikowski spoke to Matthew Winchell, Associate Attorney at Tully Rinckey PLLC, who says if someone instead shares the post on social media, "The criminal aspect side for the Class A misdemeanor would be able to stick because you’d have evidence that that person saw the post and went on to further the reach of that post."

But when it comes to holding people accountable when they see a threat and do not report it, it may be hard to prove depending on the source. "For example, I have almost 900 friends on Facebook. I don’t know how the State would try to prove that 900 of my friends saw this post," described Winchell.

"Staying silent can have disastrous consequences. If you know of something, law enforcement needs to know about it," stated Santabarbara.

Anyone under 13 years of age or with mental incapacities would be exempt from mandatory reporting. The bill does have bipartisan support and Santabarbara hopes to get it in both houses during the 2025 legislative session.