Area school districts are reaching out to families and community members regarding a social media trend that shows threatening imagery involving the Dr. Seuss character the Cat in the Hat.
“Over the last few days, our administrators and law enforcement have taken much time investigating posts that have been on social media of the Cat in the Hat theme,” said Hardin County Schools Superintendent Terrie Morgan said in a video shared by the district. “While there have been no threats, it certainly is concerning, and a distraction to our environment, which is: we want the best academic environment, learning environment, and safe environment for our students.”
The trend involves AI-edited videos which show a seemingly threatening version of the character in front of targeted school buildings. While the videos pose no credible threat, administrators are concerned with the distraction caused by the videos.
Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson said in the HCS video that threats against schools are taken very seriously.
“If you are in a school and you see videos like that, please make sure you bring it to the attention of faculty or staff, find an SRO, find some type of adult that you can report it to so that we can then take over the investigative role and make sure that our schools and all of our resources are dedicated to finding out who’s responsible for this,” Thompson said.
Morgan said individuals caught making such videos “will face severe consequences.”