Sixty minutes. That’s how long it took for a private Snapchat message to travel from Kristen Volpe’s phone to the FBI to the deputies standing in her elementary school hallway. On January 29, 2025, the 22-year-old student teacher at John L. Hensey Elementary in Washington, Illinois, vented to her boyfriend and two roommates — three people total — after a student closed her laptop mid-class and wiped her lesson plan. She referenced shooting the student or the school. She meant it as a frustrated joke. Snapchat’s algorithm didn’t get the humor.
No student reported her. No parent. No coworker. The flag was entirely automated. Snapchat’s policy permits voluntary emergency disclosures to law enforcement — no warrant required — when the platform determines imminent harm exists. The algorithm makes that initial call. Think of it like your Ring doorbell deciding to call 911 on its own, except the doorbell is reading your text messages.
Ok… At least stop putting words in my mouth. And aside from what you’re trying to do right now, there have been no strawmen in our conversation so far. Something not being illegal doesn’t inherently mean everyone should do whatever that is. I’m not saying “you should do that but you shouldn’t do that”. I’m saying you shouldn’t do that, but that is has to remain legal. As an example that I truly hope most people would agree with, cheating on your partner isn’t illegal (most places), but it’s still a really shitty thing to do.
We can definitely disagree on the social ethics around such jokes. As you say, you think such jokes are fine and I don’t. And that’s fine. I’m not advocating for censorship or anything like that. I think I’ve made it very clear that I think freedom of speech is important.
I was referring to “You should do that but you shouldn’t do that” lmao, because I was recognizing that it was a straw man, as I only said it as a joke.