GREEN BAY — A series of calls to school districts across the state today reporting active shooter emergencies are hoaxes, law enforcement officials say.
At East High School in Green Bay, officers were called about 10 a.m. for a report of an active shooter inside the school and 15 students had been shot. However when police arrived they found no injuries and no evidence of a shooting.
In Oshkosh, police say they received a call shortly before 10:30 a.m. of a disturbance involving a weapon at South Park Middle School. The school resource officer and additional officers searched the building and did not find anything of concern.
In southeastern Wisconsin, five schools received similar “Swatting” calls, according to the Rock County Sheriff’s office.
The intent of these swatting calls is to elicit a response from emergency responders.
According to the sheriff’s office, the calls were reported to be computer generated and were very similar in nature. In some cases swatting calls are robotic indicating there is an active shooter in a school.
Among the schools was Janesville Craig High School, where authorities say they received a suspicious call about 11 a.m. reporting an active shooter with casualties.
The communications center staff recognized some inconsistencies with how this call was being reported that alerted them to it being a “swatting call.” The call was taken seriously and Officer Jauch, who is assigned to Craig High School, was able to immediately confirm the event was not occurring.
The FBI released a statement on the numerous hoax threats:
“The FBI is aware of the numerous swatting incidents wherein a report of an active shooter at a school is made. The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention. We urge the public to remain vigilant, and report any and all suspicious activity and/or individuals to law enforcement immediately.”
