Jefferson Area High School hit with fake active shooter call

Mar. 1—sterry@starbeacon.com bhaytcher@starbeacon.com

JEFFERSON — Ashtabula County Sheriff William Niemi said there was no imminent threat at Jefferson Area High School after responding to a fake call for an active shooter Wednesday morning.

Niemi said everyone in the building is safe and, after a thorough search, the building is secure.

"It was a phone call reporting an active shooter at the high school," he said. "It was unfounded, a bogus call, but we sent all our resources to the high school."

The call came in at 11:30 a.m., triggering a lockdown, Superintendent John Montanaro said.

No one was injured and, shortly after noon, parents were allowed to pick up their children, if they desired, JAHS Principal Tim Fairfield said.

Shortly thereafter, robocalls and emails were sent out stop rumors and accurately provide information to parents and members of the community that everyone was safe, he said. Staff also made an extensive PA announcement to inform students about what had happened, and that they were safe, he said.

Montanaro said the police are handling the investigation into who made the call. He doesn't believe it was a Jefferson student.

"My understanding is it was from an unknown area code and the person mentioned an active shooter in Room 37," he said. "We do not have a Room 37, so I imagine if it was one of our students they would've mentioned one of our room numbers."

In recent weeks, schools and law enforcement across the nation have received hoax threat calls, called "swatting" — a cyber harassment technique with a goal of sending an armed emergency response team to a victim's location.

"We've had these before," Niemi said. "It's been going around the U.S."

Jefferson Police Chief Chris Mackensen said the call first came to the county Emergency Management Agency from a number with a 636 area code. That area code is from central Missouri, and comprising mainly the western suburbs of St. Louis.

Fairfield said police called the school resource officer, and the school was put into lockdown.

Jefferson police were on-scene within two minutes, Mackensen said.

Niemi said his department had three cruisers on-scene within three minutes, and much of the staff from the Sheriff's Office, located just under a mile from the school, responded to the scene. A nearby deputy was on-scene in one minute, he said.

"I'm pleased with the response," Mackensen said. "We had Ashtabula PD here, the Sheriff's Department was here, we were here, and a bunch of unmarked [vehicles] which I believe are the Probation Department, which is typical. ... We're in the best place, if anything would ever happen, in order to get a quick response."

Police cleared the building multiple times, he said.

An after-incident meeting has been scheduled for next week with the district and police, Mackensen said.

"We'll talk about the things that went right and the things that didn't go right, and just improve on the the situation," he said.

Jefferson police are already investigating who made the call, Mackensen said.

Niemi said his office shared the information on the call with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, because they have additional resources.

"We gave them all the information to see if we can track this down," he said, noting the call could have come from anywhere, including from overseas.

"I am so appreciative of the Jefferson area PD, of the Sheriff's Department, how fast both of those entities responded, how many people they brought it, how polite they were, but how quick they worked toward clearing the building, and how efficient they were," Fairfield said. "Proud of my teachers. My teachers went into lockdown with no issues and kept the students calm. From the custodians to the cafeteria [staff] to the teaching staff to the secretaries."

Secretaries remained at their desks during the lockdown fielding phone calls to the building, Fairfield said.

Montanaro said he was impressed with the speed and the strength of the response to the call.

"By the time I personally got in the building, the police had already checked out the whole place, and already had deemed it safe, and that was just a matter of minutes from the first time I saw a police car go by," he said. "It was quick. They came in full force."

He thanked parents who picked up their children from the school for being polite and understanding.

"It was a slow process, because kids were already eating lunch by the time parents got here," he said. "We appreciate that they were supportive and willing to wait."

In addition to Wednesday's swatting, Jefferson schools had three different students make threats last week, referencing gun violence, Montanaro said.

"To provide parents with information about these incidents we made robocalls," he said.

Montanaro stressed that the district takes all threats seriously.

"When we receive a report that a student has made a threat, we call the police, have the student removed from school, and begin the formal investigation process for the juvenile court system," he said. "If the threat assessment team determines the student made the threat, we suspend the student pending an expulsion hearing. At the expulsion hearing we take into consideration the actual facts of the case, the students' individual details and history and then determine the outcome."

He noted that this process may differ for younger students.

"Every incident is handled on an individual basis," Montanaro said. "Our school district is committed to being transparent about threats. This is why we follow each threat with a robocall. The message provides as much information as is legally possible."

In order to help students understand the severity of making a threat, school officials are working on setting up student assemblies with the Ashtabula County Prosecutor's Office, he said.