RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WGNS)- Tennessee homeland security officials are warning parents, students and school communities about a viral social media trend involving unsettling, sometimes AI-generated images and videos of the Cat in the Hat that have increasingly been paired with threats against schools and students.
The Tennessee Office of Homeland Security’s Threat Assessment Center said it is monitoring the trend after the content began appearing in Tennessee.
“Our Threat Assessment Center is tracking the ‘Cat in the Hat’ trend targeting Tennessee schools and students,” the agency said in a public warning.
The posts generally depict a dark or threatening version of the Dr. Seuss character. While some of the videos and images amount only to unsettling internet content, authorities say others have crossed a line by identifying schools, communities or individual students and including threatening messages.
Greg Mays, deputy commissioner of Homeland Security with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said investigators are taking posts with identifiable threats seriously.
“Threats to a school, threats to a person or group of people or threats to the community and that's where it crosses the line,” Mays said. He said Tennessee investigators are reviewing threats when there is information that can be pursued.
The issue has already surfaced elsewhere in Middle Tennessee. In Robertson County, an online account posted names of children along with threatening messages, according to reporting Tuesday. Mays said similar posts were appearing elsewhere in Tennessee and neighboring states.
The statewide alert did not identify a specific Rutherford County school as being involved.
Authorities are also cautioning parents and students against reposting threatening material simply to warn others. Sharing the content can make it spread farther, complicate investigations and create additional fear in school communities. Instead, officials recommend preserving relevant information and reporting potentially threatening posts to law enforcement or state authorities.
Tennessee’s SafeTN app allows students, parents, educators and members of the public to confidentially submit school and community safety concerns. Tips are reviewed around the clock and can be forwarded to law enforcement, school administrators or other appropriate agencies.
Threats or suspicious activity can also be reported to the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security at 1-877-250-2333, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The state also provides an online suspicious-activity reporting form. Anyone facing an emergency or witnessing a crime in progress should call 911.
Officials stress that simply encountering an eerie or AI-generated Cat in the Hat image is not, by itself, evidence of a threat. The concern is content that includes direct or implied threats toward a student, school or community.
State authorities are urging families to report those posts rather than participate in or amplify the online trend.