Autocorrect, Illiteracy Locks Down Georgia School

How to create a ridiculous panic with a cellphone, in three easy steps:

  • Write a text and assume autocorrect will fix your stupidity, thus not bothering to check the message.
  • Don’t just reduce “going to” to “gonna,” misspell it as “gunna,” which will apparently autocorrect to ‘gunman’.
  • Send it to the wrong number.

This is pretty much exactly what happened in Gainesville, GA.

An auto corrected text message, accidentally sent to the wrong number, was the catalyst to lockdowns Wednesday at West Hall middle and high schools.

Just before noon, law enforcement and school officials issued the lockdowns after a West Hall community member reported a threatening text message.

The text, saying “gunman be at west hall today,” was received and reported to police around 11:30 a.m. But after police tracked the number, they learned the auto correct feature on the new cellphone changed “gunna” to “gunman.” The message being sent to the wrong number added to the confusion.

Now, granted, police and school officials have the recent shootings at a school in Ohio foremost in their minds, so we can’t fault them for their reaction. We can fault the kid with the crappy English skills, though. Good job, A+! We’re sure that apathy towards how you communicate will take you places!

See, kids, this is why you need to know how to spell, and not trust a computer to do it for you.

(Image via DamnYouAutoCorrect)

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