PARKLAND, Fla. — The mother of Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg is speaking out after her family received death threats because her son and another survivor were accused of being crisis actors.
Hogg and fellow students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have made frequent media appearances to call for action on gun control after police say Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen others in a Valentine's Day massacre.
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The students have since become the center of a false conspiracy theory claiming that they are actually actors who are coached before television appearances.
Rebecca Boldrick, Hogg's mother, told The Washington Post that her family has received death threats since the conspiracy theories started surfacing, saying, "I'm under so much stress."
"I'm angry and exhausted," she added. "Angry, exhausted and extremely proud."
The student has said he's not a "crisis actor" but rather someone who witnessed a tragedy.
"It's annoying. I hate it. But it's part of American democracy," Hogg said in an interview with the Post. "Am I an actor? No. Am I a witness? Yes."
Cox Media Group