At least eleven schools or school districts that were targeted by the account “Libs of TikTok” over anti-LGBTQ grooming conspiracies last month received bomb threats just days later.
“Libs of TikTok”, helmed by former real-estate agent Chaya Raichik, has positioned itself as a vigilante crusader against “wokeness” in schools and culture—and has been heavily criticized as being a smokescreen for denigrating LGBTQ people
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Raichik, via Libs of TikTok, solicits “tips’” from her 2.5 million followers on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, ranging from Pride flags being displayed in classrooms, gender queer teachers, or stocking library books that contain information about gender identity or sexual orientation, and then puts those schools or school districts on blast.
Libs of TikTok has played a central role in fomenting the war on “grooming”—which is the right-wing label applied to any form of education or entertainment that incorporates queer themes. The account has risen in influence as many mainstream Republicans have actively campaigned against and enacted policies chipping away at LGBTQ rights over the past several years. Raichik dined with former president Donald Trump earlier this year, and members of Congress routinely engage with Libs of TikTok posts—as do far-right groups, including neo-Nazis.
It’s perhaps not exactly surprising that schools or individuals who are “featured” on Libs of TikTok end up facing a barrage of trolls and harassment. Last summer, hospitals — Boston Children’s Hospital in particular— were besieged by bomb threats after Libs of TikTok and similar accounts obsessively highlighted the fact that they offer gender-affirming care to transgender youths. (Last week, a 37-year-old woman from Westfield, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to charges linked to calling in a hoax bomb threat to the hospital).
But bomb threats targeting schools or school districts following Libs of TikTok posts appears to be a particularly ominous escalation. Raichik, in a series of emails with VICE News, would not say if she felt any responsibility for the threats, and instead insinuated the threats had nothing to do with her or her followers. She then posted the email chain to her followers on her personal account on X, which was then amplified by the Libs of TikTok account.
VICE News reached out to all 42 school districts, schools, colleges, businesses and event organizers that were mentioned in Libs of TikTok posts in September.
The majority didn’t respond, and only three school districts said that they hadn’t received bomb threats as a result of being featured in a Libs of TikTok post (one of those, a school district in North Kansas City, Missouri, was targeted when a transgender high school senior was crowned Homecoming Queen. She bore the brunt of the threats and harassment). But the 11 schools or school districts that did report receiving bomb threats indicate a disturbing pattern:
- Western Heights ISD in Oklahoma City was targeted in three Libs of TikTok posts between September 9 and 14. During that time frame, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of education posted a photo with Raichik and praised her as doing “more for transparency and accountability in schools than most elected officeholders.” An elementary school in Western Heights ISD received a bomb threat on September 15.
- Witchcraft Heights Elementary School in Salem, Massachusetts, was targeted in a Libs of TikTok post on September 12. The school received emailed bomb threats on September 15, 19, and 21, prompting evacuations. Salem Police Captain John Burke told local news that all three emails “followed a similar MO” and his agency was working with state and federal agencies to investigate the threats.
- Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota was targeted in Libs of TikTok posts on September 13 and 14. They received a bomb threat by email on September 15. The district’s director of communications Jim Skelly told VICE News that it was unusual for the district to receive threats directly by email such as this one. This was the second direct threat that the district, which is Minnesota’s largest, received in the last two years. More commonplace threats usually come from students or are made via social media and are quickly processed as “non-credible” by law enforcement, said Skelly.
- Red Oak School, an elementary school in a suburb of Chicago, was featured in a Libs of TikTok post on September 15. The elementary school received three threats over the course of four days. Children were evacuated from the school following the first two threats. A spokesperson for the North Shore School District, which encompasses Red Oak, told VICE News that the last time the school district received a bomb threat was 25 years ago.
- Davis Joint Unified School District in California was targeted in two separate Libs of TikTok posts on September 19 and 22, and received bomb threats on September 20 and September 25. On both occasions, the threats indicated that bombs had been placed at the homes of school district officials and in certain schools in the district. The threats caused both schools to delay start times so police could search for possible explosive devices.
- Pulaski High School in Wisconsin was targeted in a Libs of TikTok post on September 20. The school was evacuated on September 22 and again on September 26 due to two separate bomb threats. “Through the course of the investigation and working with the other agencies, it is our determination the two email threats originated outside the United States,” the school said in a statement. “The threats seem to be generated due to a variety of controversial social media content across the Nation.”
- Brownsville Elementary in Kitsap, Washington, was targeted by Libs of TikTok on September 21. On September 25, the school was evacuated due to an emailed bomb threat. A spokesperson for the local police department told VICE News that they were still investigating the reason for the bomb threat.
- Cherry Creek School District, Colorado, was targeted by Libs of TikTok on September 22. They received bomb threats against several schools and administrative buildings that same day.
- Denver Public Schools were targeted by Libs of TikTok on September 24. Scott Pribble, head of external communications at Denver Public Schools, spokesperson told VICE News that they received several threats the following day from someone claiming they’d placed a bomb in three of the 12 schools in the district. The email was addressed to the state education department, a couple of local TV stations, and some emails listed on the school district’s website.
- Fresno State University and a professor were targeted in a Libs of TikTok post on September 27. The next day, the university and the professor received bomb threats.
- Tigard-Tualatin School District in the Portland suburbs was featured in a Libs of TikTok on September 28. A middle school in the district was closed the following Monday after receiving an emailed threat over that weekend of bombings and shootings aimed at teachers, staff and district administrators. Local news reports stated that the FBI traced the threat to an out-of-state source and determined it was not credible.
This flurry of threats against school districts that were spotlighted by Libs of TikTok coincides with a more general surge in threats, bomb hoaxes and swatting calls against schools. Threats against schools in 2022 were up by 60% compared to the previous year, according to the FBI.
While schools were unable to say for certain whether the threats they received were linked to Libs of TikTok, citing ongoing police investigations, many noted that the level of threat received was highly unusual.
Some of those who were targeted by Libs of TikTok in September who didn’t receive bomb threats instead reported vicious harassment, doxxing, and intimidation. Erika, a school bus driver in the Pittsburgh area, told VICE News that her life was turned upside down when a screenshot from her private Facebook account made its way to Libs of TikTok. The post showed a sheet of stickers she’d ordered, which included Pride flags and innocuous slogans like “all humans are beautiful,” “this is a safe space,” and “love always wins” in rainbow font. “I got new stickers!” Erika wrote in the Facebook post, adding a smiley face emoji. “Gonna get some magnet sheets so I can turn ‘em into magnets and put them in my bus!”
“Meet Erika, a school bus driver,” Libs of Tiktok wrote in their post on September 5, which now has 358,000 views. “She’s covering her school bus which she uses to transport young children, with trans propaganda. Why would a school bus have signs promoting the sexualization of children?”
Within 24 hours of that post going up, Erika was swarmed by online harassment. A friend informed her she was on an account called Libs of TikTok, which she’d never heard of. When she found the posting, Erika said she was shocked to see it had almost 800 comments underneath it, calling her a groomer, saying she should be fired, and that she was a perfect example for why children should be homeschooled.
She received a handwritten birthday card to her home address, which asked her to refrain from “recruiting minors on the job” into her satanist beliefs.
Days after the Libs of TikTok post went up, Erika’s supervisor gave her a heads up that the superintendent had been fielding a ton of complaints and had been asked by board members to search her bus and take photos. “There’s sunflowers and butterflies on my bus. I have a few magnets that say ‘be kind’,” said Erika. “I was never reprimanded. They said they’re behind me. They did ask that I do not put any rainbow or allied supportive magnets on display on my bus.”
“The fact that anyone would think that I would do something that would harm a child or someone that’s marginalized really makes me mad,” said Erika. “It could not be further from the truth. It was so upsetting, and I felt like my head was spinning, everything was so out of control.”
Erika added that her husband suggested they refrain from hanging a Pride flag on the house until this blows over. “But I feel like if we’re not standing up for people who are being targeted, then what are we even doing? How much are we going to tolerate?”
