Waukesha South Shooting: TikTok Video Causes Controversy

People on social media are upset because they say a group of Waukesha South High School students posted a TikTok video of themselves dancing inside the school with a police squad car visible outside a window after a police officer shot a student allegedly armed with a pellet gun.

The video, which has since been deleted from TikTok, was allegedly captioned, “Making a tiktok while there’s a school shooting,” according to a screenshot of the video. The caption also included a smiley face and several hashtags: #holidaycountdown #decadeslooks. Media Milwaukee has reviewed a copy of the video that was posted on Facebook and several screenshots of it but is choosing not to print the students’ names or run the video because they are juveniles. However, the 10-second video shows two female and two male students dancing in a classroom to a song and then zooms in on a squad car parked outside of the school.

The sister of one of the girls in the video also claimed on social media that there were “multiple stories and tik toks posted just as bad as this” made by other students in the school at the time.

An Arizona man who is from Waukesha, Wisconsin and who saw the video, posted it to his Facebook page, writing, “People are sitting here making tik toks ‘trying to go viral’ while not only people but KIDS could have been getting SHOT in their very own SCHOOL. This is nothing to joke about.”  That sparked a flurry of outrage back-and-forth between people upset about the video and others, who said they were the mothers and sister of students in it. Meanwhile, other parents weighed in. A woman who identified herself as a parent of a student not in the video wrote angrily of the video, “The students who were in close proximity or witnessed the entire thing are traumatized and have to return to school tomorrow while other students think it’s a freaking joke! Just absolutely disgusting!”

Terry Schuster, the Waukesha School District spokesperson, told Media Milwaukee that school officials didn’t know about the TikTok video but were going to look into it.

In a December 3 press conference on the shooting, Waukesha Police Chief Russell Jack highlighted positive actions taken by other students and thanked the community for its support and prayers. “To the students: You did exactly as you were trained. You saw something and you said something,” Jack said in the news conference, saying those students’ actions were responsible for “mitigating harm.” He was referring to students who alerted authorities about the weapon, not those in the TikTok video, but his comments show that there were a variety of teenage reactions to what was unfolding.

However, on social media, debate was brewing about the video and what it says about a “social media” generation, if anything.

One angry woman, who identified herself as a mother of a girl in the video, wrote on the comment thread that people were bullying her daughter, while acknowledging, “listen, she was wrong, and I’ll deal with it and she knows it.” When asked for comment by Media Milwaukee, the alleged sister of one of the girls in the video refused and said they would call a family attorney.  Media Milwaukee is not naming the relatives so as not to vicariously identify the students in the video due to their ages.

The Facebook post that has a recording of the TikTok has almost 9,000 views and 400 comments. Comments range from concern regarding a lack of sensitivity in the video to sympathy for the students who posted it.  TikTok is a social media platform where users share edited videos of themselves.

The City of Waukesha, located 30 minutes away from Milwaukee in Southeast Wisconsin, is in shock after the Waukesha South High School shooting occurred and then a student at Waukesha North High was arrested for allegedly having a facsimile firearm at his residence shortly after news broke about South High School. The next day, a school resource officer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin shot a student who stabbed him inside the school, authorities in that community said in their own press conference.

At the Waukesha scene around 4 p.m. on Monday, the school was still surrounded by yellow caution tape, with an officer guarding each door, and not a single student in sight.

The Waukesha School District was tagged in the post on Facebook about the TikTok video and in the comments.

Social Media Controversy Erupts

The social media critics expressing outrage say The TikTok video was inappropriate because of the seriousness of the situation and they believe social media is desensitizing youth to tragedy and violence.  “I don’t think they were trying to play or be funny I think it’s more of a demonstration of what is happening in the lives of young people today,” a woman wrote on Facebook.

Waukesha County youth not involved with the video say that TikTok has become a go-to social media platform for teens in many schools in the area, and that becoming “TikTok” famous is something some teenagers in a variety of local schools strive to do.

One person wrote in the comments, “Do you guys realize another student was shot while they did this. I don’t care that they’re kids. When I was in high school I had enough dignity and respect to not do stuff like this.”

However, two people claiming to be relatives of those in the video pushed back in detailed posts on Facebook, saying the youth recorded the video at least an hour after the suspected pellet-gun armed student had already been shot, and they did not know the severity of the situation. People said that some of the students in the video weren’t aware of the caption. Media Milwaukee verified that the person whose TikTok page posted it has been identified as a South student before.

One person who commented, claiming to be the sister of one of the girls in the video, wrote, “That is my sister. They literally had no idea what was real or not at this point. My sister had no intentions of this being posted or that caption being used or viewed.”  

The sister continued in another comment, saying, “Three people had no idea this was gonna be posted with that caption and didn’t know the cop car would be in it. I don’t remember growing up having a serious lockdown drill where everyone was quiet and content. She later sent us videos crying. They didn’t know. Everyone needs to understand we can all make mistakes and I’m not okay with it. Let’s take light on the fact that everyone’s okay and not focus on the one tik tok you happened to come upon when there were multiple.”

A woman who identified herself as the mother of one of the girls in the video also commented on the Facebook thread, writing, “You don’t know the texts and videos I was getting from my daughter panicking. This was during the hold when no one knew what was going on. She had no idea the girl was going to post it nor the caption. So quit hiding behind your keyboards and leave the kids alone. They meant no harm and were taking their minds off of the stuff going down. You have a problem call me.” One mother claimed she called the police on the person who re-posted the video on his Facebook page.

Another commenter, claiming to be the mother of one of the students in the TikTok, said that her child was being treated unfairly and cyberbullying is one of the causes of school shootings.

“Those kids in that TikTok are not the problem,” said the mother. “They were simply in class with no information on what was going on outside because they are kids and that would cause mass pandemonium. This type of cyberbullying on judgement contributes to the reason these school shootings happen.” The mother also ended her comment with, “Sincerely, The mother of one of those kids in the TIC TOC (sic) video.”

People in the comments countered the family members’ statements by saying there is no way to justify making a joke out of something so serious.

“Kids were calling their parents telling them they didn’t know what was going to happen to them, barricading doors with desks, chairs and bookshelves and these kids had the audacity to be making a video. People could have lost their lives, it could have gone so different and we had students making jokes out of it, how nasty,” one of the comments read in response to the mother.

One mother of a girl in the video wrote: “I’m disgusted but I will handle. I’m sure when you were 16 you were perfect. Just back off…”

A person responded to that mother, chastising her and, saying, “Last time I checked we weren’t tryna get famous while people could’ve died.” The man who originally shared the video on Facebook wrote, “Of course people are going to say sh*t back to her (a girl in the video) …ACTIONS COME WITH CONSEQUENCES, if you don’t wanna get ‘bullied’ online turn off the phone!”

How the Shooting Unfolded

According to a press release from the Waukesha Police Department, a student reported that another student had a handgun in school around 10 a.m. on Monday. It later turned out that the student had two pellet guns, according to a December 3 press conference given by Waukesha police. Police alleged that the unidentified student suspect was angry at another student and pointed the pellet gun at him. A police officer, identified as Sgt. Brady Esser, then shot the suspect, who is in the hospital, Waukesha police said in the news conference.

The school resource officer immediately responded and evacuated the classroom and waited for support from other officers, said police. Esser is not the resource officer.

“The suspect would not remove his hands from his pocket and continued to ignore officers’ commands. The suspect removed the handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers. An officer was forced to discharge his firearm striking the suspect. Officers immediately provided lifesaving medical attention. The remaining students were evacuated and the school was put on LOCK DOWN. The suspect is a 17-year-old male. He was transported to the hospital and is in stable condition,” said the earliest statement from police.

AJ Raebel, a math teacher at Waukesha South High, gave a detailed account of what he experienced Monday on Facebook.

“10:10 – lockdown announced. My speaker glitched so I stuck my head out to see if other teachers heard it. Down the hall, our SRO, with two other men, were clearly on alert. I saw the SRO reach for his gun. I closed the door and told the kids, this is not a drill, go to the back of the classroom,” said Raebel.

“10:17 – I hear 3 or 4 gunshots. I look to my kids to see if they heard it, but I shouldn’t have,” the account continues. “They saw the fear in my face and several start crying. I assume the position I’ve always played in my head to best hide and attack a gunman in my room. Sirens are going off like crazy. I sneak out of my position to see if there is safe spot to help my kids jump out the windows, but there isn’t one. I got back to my spot.”

The Waukesha Police Department also released another statement on Monday chastising the media for going to the houses of the officers involved.

“Please do not go to the residence of officers. Media outlets have responded to the residence of an officer and your presence caused extreme stress to the family. That is unacceptable,” said the statement.