to be slightly irritated by people posting unfounded rumours that just cause hysteria on their facebook ???

[Awassailinglookingforanswers]

Tuesday morning their was an "incident" at a county school invovling "suspicious" behaviour by a man/2 men and a 6yr old girl.

There have been rumours flying around that there have been more attempts elsewhere in the county and a facebook status update going around locally saying

"Please be aware when taking your kids to school there was an attempted abduction at the XXXXXXXX Juniors this morning and 2 further failed attempts in XXXXXXXXX yesterday, following the XXXXXXXXXXX attempt on Tuesday. Its 2 men saying they are school officials."

The ONLY one that happened (And it doesn't even say attempted abduction, or abut the 2 men saying they are school oifficals) was the initial one on the Tuesday. And indeed the latest update on the police website says

"We are aware that a number of unfounded rumours and descriptions have been circulating, these have not been issued by the police and would urge people to look at our website for an accurate report on the situation."

I posted to say as such on one friend's profile and am being shot down for it! I pointed out that of COURSE we want to keep our children safe, but circulating unfounded rumours and gossip only creates hysteria instead......

yes the initial incident is real - there was an incident involving a 10yr old boy at a primary school in the next town on Tuesday.

The other rumours flew from that.

I've never seen how these "police alert" type emails that circulate the web start.........but I can see how easily they happen having seen how this one has escalated!

Is there a bbc news type link to it?
It just sounds soooooooo similar to something that happened last year - involved a school/supermarket as well, child supposedly nearly snatched, loads of internet scaremongering followed - but afair the origonal incident had never occurred anyway

there' only the local rag reports.

I have reliable info (an MNer on this thread who knows a teacher who works at the school ) that there was an incident - and indeed there are updates on the incident on the local police website which indicate the same.

IT's just the rest of it is absolute friggin hysteria - I posted earlier to remind people that yes - we must teach our childre "stranger danger" and take care there, but we musn't lose sight of the fact that the majority of children are abused by people they already know and trust - not random strangers.

I have since been told that because of my comments perhaps someone should be checking that my children are safe (mwahahaha - I already have SS involved with us - though thankfully now "at a distance" )

I've just been called argumentative over on that group

It was for similar reasons that I decided to leave facebook. The nonsence that people spout on fb really makes me question their character and intelligence.

The child abductors were apparently in our local TK Maxx last weekend, this time it was a little girl who had her head shaved in a changing room before they were caught..

Reminds me of the time after 9/11 when everyone seemed to know someone who had met an Islamic man on the tube who had dropped money, and when someone handed it back to him, he thanked them and warned them not to be in London on a certain date..

These stories don't half do the rounds once they get going!

"Nowhere is SAFE!"

Allegedly. Although there must be a deal of vacant space in the heads of the fuckwits who spread this sort of guff. Facebook should simply close these groups down.

PMSL Pikelit - very true - must be plenty of space in some of their heads.

I still can't quite get over how they didn't see ANY link at all about what I posted about being aware of stranger danger but also about the risk from people they know

this song is about this kind of hysteria, lyrics in video description

I live in the local area to the school that had the incident and i received a letter from the school informing me of what had happened. I also got a a few texts (all saying the same thing) about it.

Some people love the drama of it.

I am surprised that there hasnt been a facebook group to try and close down the soft play area where the 6yr old girl collapsed recently too

well thankfully at least the group name has been changed - and a link posted to the interview on heart(s) radio earlier today with a police officer (who basically said he's actually more concerned about the paranoia that's being caused than by the investigation LOL)