Fake shooting call at Highland Park High latest in spree targeting Kansas schools
Topeka police have determined there is no active threat to Highland Park High School shooters after dispatchers received a 911 call Wednesday morning claiming there was a shooter at the school.
Police had swarmed the school following the 8:15 a.m. call, and the school was put into lockdown. However, police quickly determined there was no actual threat in the building, especially after several other schools in Kansas received similar calls.
Schools in Manhattan, Lawrence, Wichita and El Dorado were also put in lockdown following similar reports. Law enforcement officials in most of the cases said they had quickly or even immediately identified the reports as "swatting" attempts, a term used for fake 911 calls to maliciously summon a large police presence to a location. In some cases, the caller had identified the supposed shooting as taking place in rooms that didn't even exist in the schools.
Kansas schools have seen uptick in hoax 'swatting' calls this year
Although school shootings remain rare, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of swatting calls in the school years since the start of the pandemic. In September, Topeka's Hayden Catholic High School was the target of one such swatting attempt as part of a broader effort that targeted schools in Wichita, Kansas City and Oklahoma City. That mid-September week saw more than 90 false reports of active shooters, according to a Wired analysis of the incidents.
Investigators have had trouble sourcing these calls to their origin, since they're made internationally using anonymous, internet-based messaging and calling systems.
More:Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma all saw false reports Thursday of active shooters at schools
Fake or not, the incidents are still traumatic for all those involved, even if the incidents are quickly cleared.
"In speaking to a number of people who experienced it, I can tell you that the anxiety and fear — it was real to them for 15 minutes,” Amanda Klinger, director of programs and cofounder of the Educator’s School Safety Network, told Wired in October. “There’s a period of time in these incidents where people are literally running for their lives, law enforcement is responding with their weapons, and people think it's the real thing.”
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka's Highland Park High School cleared after fake shooter report
