Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly, officials give update on recent series of 'swatting' calls
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly addressed the series of threatening calls made to area schools this week during a press conference Thursday.
The latest incident happened that morning, when the sheriff’s office received calls threatening to shoot up and bomb Buddy Taylor Middle School in Palm Coast.
The sheriff, accompanied by the Flagler County School Board Chair Will Furry and Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore, said the update was to clarify and put to rest rumors and misinformation about the calls.
“Our hope is to set the record straight about what is occurring and what we are doing,” Staly said, adding that today’s would be the only press conference the sheriff’s office would hold until they make an arrest. “Because we don’t want to feed this caller’s sick ego.”
Shooting, bomb threats to Flagler Schools
The first incident happened Tuesday around 2:50 p.m., when the sheriff’s office communications center received a call threatening to shoot up Buddy Taylor Middle School.
“The school had already released students for the day,” Staly said. “That’s an indicator to us that the caller maybe didn’t know a bunch about Buddy Taylor Middle School.”
Nonetheless, 24 units responded to the scene, searched the school and determined there was no threat. The threats also impacted Wadsworth Elementary School which is adjacent to the middle school.
Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, the communications center received another “similar” call making a shooting threat against the school.
The 22 units that responded also determined the threat to be “unfounded,” according to Staly.
“However, it did disrupt bus transportation, which was averted and eventually allowed to come back,” he said.
Another call came in at 2:45 p.m., in which the caller said they would “shoot every police officer who responded, and that they had placed two bombs inside Old Kings Elementary School.”
Nineteen patrol units responded to that call.
Also that afternoon, the sheriff’s office received a call from the Lincoln Nebraska Police Department, which said it received a call threatening a shooting and two bombs at Buddy Taylor High School.
Threat at Old Kings: Flagler Sheriff's deputies respond to Old Kings Elementary after another school threat call
“In every incident, sheriff’s deputies swiftly responded in full force and searched thoroughly until no threats were (found) and everything was cleared,” Staly said.
What's a ‘swatting’ call?
According to Staly, the schools are targets of a practice called “swatting.”
“That’s a term that refers to calls that falsely report acts of violence are in progress or about to occur,” he explained. “They are intended to set off a massive and immediate deployment of law enforcement to a specific location, including SWAT teams.”
Staly said his office is working with the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Homeland Security to investigate the calls.
“These call can be made from someone local or someone outside the United States, which makes it difficult to trace,” Staly said. “Though we are actively pursuing all these.”
Flagler Schools officials weigh in
Furry and Moore both reiterated that student safety is the district’s main priority.
“I have a message to the perpetrator making these threats: Stop it now. Whatever you are trying to accomplish here in Flagler County, I can assure you will fall flat,” Furry said. “I cannot think of a more cowardly thing to do than to target children or to instill fear in their hearts.
“I am confident you will be found, and you will be brought to justice,” he added.
Moore said she knows this week has been “very difficult” for students and their families.
“We, too, have received a lot of feedback on communication, on being timely, but in those moments, the first thing we have to do is ensure that our students, faculty and our staff are safe,” she said. “This is something that has impacted and disrupted schools across our district, but our staff has responded extremely well, our students have done a phenomenal job of responding.”
Moore said there will be no scheduling changes to the rest of the school year.
“We only have a few days left,” Moore said. “Normal school practices will continue to happen across Flagler Schools.”
Moore encouraged parents to continue to send their kids to school: “We are going to have a normal rest for the year — lots of fun activities planned for our students, but it is the parents’ right to decide.
“What we have done is we have excused and will continue to excuse absences for families who decide to keep their children at home,” she said.
What do investigators know so far?
All of this week’s calls are being investigated, Staly said, but not many details are currently available as to the person responsible and their motive.
“What motivates these people? Who knows?” he said. “There’s chat rooms where (someone says) ‘I did this today,’ and now this other group has to try to top it.”
Staly said that people arrested for these types of offenses are often between the ages of 16 and 24.
When asked whether investigators found any physical evidence and if the caller had masked their voice in any way, Staly said “we do have some information, but I’m not going to go into that.”
He also pointed out that each call is a third-degree felony offense.
Threats in Volusia: Student, 16, charged in false gun report at NSB High School that locked down schools
“Once in a while we get lucky with these swatting calls,” Staly said. “We identified one that came out of Virginia a year or so ago.”
Staly encouraged anyone who has information related to these incidents to reach out to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office’s at 386-313-4911 or through the sheriff’s office app, available to download on the Google Play store and App Store.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'Swatting' calls to Flagler Schools: Sheriff gives update
