Patrick Henry Middle School students named in threat made in social app

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- An anonymous social media threat involving students of Houston's Patrick Henry Middle School has some parents and children very upset.

Eleven-year-old Luciano Rivera first saw the post Thursday morning. The mysterious message popped up on his Kik account. Kik is a social messaging app popular with teenagers.

"It start out: hello darling how has your day been, hahahah," says Rivera, reading from the message.

The message, sent from an account called "DONTILOOKPRETTYHAHA" threatened to kill students at Patrick Henry one by one. It listed the names of 16 students from the middle school, including Rivera and his older brother.

"I'm number 7 and my brother's number 12," said Rivera.

Rivera immediately told his family, who met with school officials on Thursday. However, Rivera's aunt says they left unsatisfied. They say the school resource officer did not seem overly concerned.

"We left clueless from there. We asked the officer what should we do, and that's what she recommended, that they delete Kik from their phones," said Celia Rodriguez, the boy's aunt.

Eyewitness News contacted HISD, which released the following statement: "HISD is aware of an anonymous social media threat made against a small group of students at Patrick Henry Middle School. All parents of those students known to be involved were immediately notified Thursday. HISD Police is investigating. We take all threats seriously as the safety of our students and staff is always our top priority."

Today, the family decided to keep Rivera and his older brother out of school.

"It's frightening to them," said Rodriguez. "Even it is a joke, it is not a good joke, not a funny joke, it's scary."

The police are investigating. Additionally, a campus police officer is monitoring activity around the school.