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swatting

Leominster’s Sky View Middle School targeted in ‘swatting’ hoax

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LEOMINSTER — Reports of a person brandishing a weapon on the grounds of Sky View Middle School on Wednesday morning were determined to be unfounded.

At 11:50 a.m., the Leominster Police Department received a report that someone was on school grounds with an AR-15-style rifle. After the call was received, the school went into lockdown while police, fire, and emergency services swept school grounds.

“We were able to get in and get out and it went off without a hitch,” Police Chief Aaron Kennedy said.

After determining the threat was unfounded, the lockdown was lifted at 12:30 p.m. and the school day resumed. Kennedy said the false report at Sky View follows the “swatting” hoax seen at other schools across the state this week including Fitchburg High School and Clinton Public Schools on Tuesday.

Regardless of if it is a hoax or not, Kennedy said every situation had to be taken seriously.

“From our vantage point in Leominster, we treat everything as if it’s the real deal,” Kennedy said. “We don’t ever think of it as a lesser threat.”

Kennedy said police, fire and emergency management meet on a weekly basis and work in conjunction with Leominster Public Schools, as they did Wednesday. He said all parties train for scenarios like this so the disruption for students and their ability to learn is minimal. Although he could not speak for other communities, he felt they would share the same belief.

“As soon as you let your guard down, that will be the time where there will be the mistake you can’t take back,” Kennedy said.

When situations like this occur, Kennedy said he understood the worry and panic parents may feel. However, he said that the city’s emergency personnel and the school department were committed to keeping students safe “in school and on the streets.” He said today was a good training exercise that could be reviewed for ways these situations can be handled in the future.

“We want to make sure that we never have the real deal happen in the city,” Kennedy said.

The investigation into the threats is ongoing and Kennedy said he would not comment on the particulars of the case.

As “swatting” threats are made against schools across the state, the State Police “Fusion Center” has played a role in disseminating timely information to local police departments. Kennedy said the threat made against Sky View Middle School were similar to the threats made against Fitchburg High School and Clinton Public Schools on Tuesday.

Additionally, Kennedy added the lessons learned from the situation at Sky View would be shared with other area police departments to ensure they had the information needed to respond should threats be made against schools in their communities.

An investigation into the threats is ongoing, Kennedy said.

“Swatting” refers to the practice of calling in a fake report in order to bring a significant presence of armed first responders to a particular place as report. The phrase has been recognized as a criminal phenomenon by the FBI since at least 2008.

‘Swatting’ hoax targets Fitchburg High School, Clinton Public Schools

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Fitchburg High School and Clinton Public Schools were targeted in what appears to be a statewide “swatting” hoax on Tuesday.

According to Fitchburg Police Capt. Christopher Garcia, the State Police “Fusion Center” issued an alert Tuesday stating local school districts and police departments across Massachusetts were receiving phone calls stating an individual was threatening to show up with a weapon.

Garcia said shortly after the alert was issued, an individual threatened to show up at Fitchburg High School with a weapon and a pipe bomb.

“We sent some officers up to Fitchburg High School,” Garcia said. “They did not put the school into a lockdown because according to the ‘Fusion Center,’ there have been multiple schools across Massachusetts in the last two days that have received the same threat.”

While the school was not put into lockdown, Garcia said officers did a full search of the building and “didn’t find anything out of the norm.” He added every situation is given a response and the department would act accordingly in each scenario.

Fitchburg Public Schools Superintendent Bob Jokela said the district conferred with the police department to assess the threat level to the school community and safety is always the top priority.

Jokela added the district is committed to building a “culture of safety” and the district’s safety taskforce will hold a meeting after February vacation. Additionally, he said the district is working to improve security systems and is pursuing safety focused grants.

“We’re trying to build that culture because it will really come down to the students, the staff and the parents,” Jokela said. “That’s something we’re trying to be very clear and consistent on in our task force meetings and meetings with our staff and students — that if you see something, say something.”

Nearby, the Clinton Police Department received a phone call stating a person was seen near the middle and high schools with a weapon and possible explosives. A joint statement by Clinton Police and Clinton Public Schools said all schools went into lockdown around 10:20 a.m.

Clinton and State Police did a sweep of all of the town’s schools, but did not find anything. The lockdown at the elementary school ended around 11 a.m., while the lockdown ended at the middle and high schools just before noon.

“All schools will address this situation with students tomorrow, Wednesday, February 15, and provide support to any student in need,” the statement read.

In an email to parents, Clinton Elementary School Principal Meghan Silvio recognized the lockdown was a scary experience. She said most students did not know the details of the incident.

“Tomorrow, when they come to school, we will remind them that we practice drills to keep us safe. We will tell them that we remained in our classroom for some time, and had indoor recess to be sure that there was nothing dangerous inside or outside of our building,” Silvio wrote. “Some of them might have seen police officers walking around our building to make sure everything was safe. We will remind them that if they feel nervous they can always talk to their teacher, or their guidance counselor.”

The threats made against Fitchburg High School and Clinton Public Schools follow a pattern on threats made against several schools across the state on Monday including: Amesbury, Braintree, Charlestown, Chelmsford, East Boston, North Attleboro and Westfield.

According to the Boston Herald, state police spokesman David Procopio characterized the threats as “hoax ‘swatting’ calls,” referring to the practice of calling in a fake report in order to bring a huge police response to somewhere as a prank.

The Herald also reported the State Police “Fusion Center” — where state, local and federal authorities can combine resources — is “assisting in the investigation into the source of the calls.”

In an email to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Procopio said, “Thus far every call has been determined to be a hoax.”

Correspondent Sara Arnold contributed to this report.