SPOKANE, Wash – A Spokane family is dealing with a wave of misinformation after their child was injured at a daycare.
The child, 14-month-old Jayceon, was bitten by another toddler, resulting in severe injuries that required hospital treatment. His parents, Teayana Fletcher and Anthony Barnes, posted about the incident on Facebook to warn others about daycare research.
However, the family is now facing a second crisis. Images of Jayceon were taken from their social media and reposted with false claims that he is missing. These misleading posts have appeared in locations as varied as Bower County, Virginia; Norfolk, Michigan; Coeur d’Alene; Tacoma; and even as far as Sydney, Australia.
The false claims have led to threats against the family.
“People are trying to get us arrested, my phone has not stopped ringing for the past 3 days,” said Fletcher.
The posts are not from credible sources like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) or law enforcement agencies. They often contain misspellings and lack proper information, such as the child’s name, the date they went missing, and the location.
The NCMEC was contacted but was unavailable for an interview. They did provide resources confirming that fake posts about missing children do occur. To verify if a post is real, they suggest checking for credible sources and accurate information.
The family reached out to local police and the FBI, but prosecuting those responsible for the misinformation is challenging due to the difficulty in tracing the source of the posts. Reporting fake posts to the social media platform may be the best course of action.
