Swatting incidents

from Inklings November 2022 Issue

Casual Comments

8 | FEATURES

Connecticut swatting incident highlights growing national problem

Finnegan Courtney ’23 Executive TV Producer Caroline Zajac ’25 Staff Writer

“Lockdown procedures activated. Lockdown procedures activated. An emergency has been reported in the building. Please follow the building lockdown procedures.” Snapping out of their early morning stupor, students and teachers race into the corners of the classroom, shielding their faces from doors and windows. Confusion and unspoken fear quickly take over the class: is this a drill or is it real? Similar scenes played out at 17 high schools and two universities throughout Connecticut after calls were received warning of potential gun violence on Friday, Oct. 21. Among them was Staples, forcing the school into lockdown around 9 a.m. As police officers poured onto campus, students and teachers waited: some terrified, some confused. As minutes drew Swatting, the practice of into seemingly endless hours, calling emergency services on normal school operations were the premise of a false threat, is a eventually deemed safe to re- growing nationwide epidemic, turn to at around 11 a.m, in with a 2019 Anti-Defamation what would later be charac- League article citing a 600-case terized as a swatting incident. increase from 2011 to 2019. However, the morning’s un- This tactic of harassment wastes expected turn left the entire resources and instills terror community, administrators within a community. Some feel “included, shaken. “This one in particuthat these threats are eerily reminicent of the oldlar really er trend bothered of bomb me be- threats. cause the “Bomb response threats had warranted the same an armed response,” Westport results,” Scarice said. “SomeSuperintendent of Schools one would call in a bomb threat Thomas Scarice said. “Last and we would have to leave the May, we had a shelter in place, building. So the disruption is which was disturbing, but this the same, but because of the one warranted cops going [...] modern world, it’s more gun- room by room with their guns and school-violence related.” shown.” According to a WIRED article, there were 90 swatting calls spanning just three weeks this past September. Often these calls occur after real shooting incidents. The Sandy Hook tragedy that will turn a decade old come December also experienced a similar incident. “For the years following Sandy Hook, there were

[false] calls made in Newtown on or around the anniversary,” Staples Principal Stafford W. Thomas Jr. said. “So unfortunately, we know all too well that [swatting is] here until they find a way to crack down on that.” As the school year continues to progress, many Staples students have become accustomed to frequent lockdowns. It is concerning but, in all honesty, [...] those “It is concerning but in all honesty, I feel as though, to lockdowns have simply become a part some extent, those lockdowns have simply beof being a student.” come a part of being a stu- Jaime Paul '23 dent,” Jaime Paul ’23 said. “Which in some ways is more con cerning as lockdowns should not be the norm for [students].” Police departments— Westport’s included—are struggling to determine whether these threats are real or

fake. Westport Police Department Lieutenant Dave Wolf noted certain indicators may help in determining this, but all calls are treated as real until proven otherwise. “We always take swatting calls very seriously until we can conclusively determine that the call was, in fact, a prank,” Wolf said. “We can never know for sure that the call is fake until we get to the school and make sure that there are no issues.” Meanwhile, for the community most affected by the two-hour lockdown, it is a different feeling of sorts, albeit one becoming all too familiar and frightening. “Since the last swatting incident, I have found myself worried about possibilities of other attacks [...] and it’s nerve-racking and scary to have thoughts like these constantly on my mind,” Lily Rimm ’25 said. “I was very distraught after the incident a few weeks ago, and am always alert during the school day in case another incident will occur like this one.”