School campuses across the nation, including in Southern California, have seen a spike in hoax, or “swatting” calls to police about bogus shootings this week.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon posted Friday on X that the Trump administration is closely monitoring swatting incidents on campuses across the country.
On Wednesday, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in Utah and a shooting at a Colorado high school critically wounded two students before the gunman killed himself.
“Amidst the heaviness of the past few days, college campuses across the country have been dealing with a disturbing wave of ‘swatting’ incidents – deliberate, false reports of emergencies intended to spread fear and disrupt campus life,” McMahon wrote Friday.
“These threats are not just disruptive – they are dangerous. Each one forces students, faculty, and law enforcement into emergency response mode, diverting critical resources and putting lives at risk, all for a malicious hoax,” she said.
The calls reporting phantom crimes — known as swatting because they’re aimed at summoning police SWAT teams – have affected at least a dozen schools since Wednesday, with many of the targets historically Black colleges and universities, ABC reported.
The malicious pranks can be phoned in from anywhere in the country, sometimes the world, with perpetrators usually warning of imminent violence.
The callers typically use “spoof” caller IDs to conceal their identities. However, they can often be traced via law enforcement warrants. Criminal charges can be filed at the state or federal level.
A report of a shooting at Blair High School in Pasadena on Friday turned out to be a hoax, but authorities were taking no chances.
The threat was called in to police dispatch around 10:15 a.m. Friday, according to Pasadena Police Department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.
The school, at 1201 S. Marengo Ave., just east of Arroyo Seco Parkway, went on lockdown and officers conducted a sweep of classrooms but found no threat, she said.
Nonetheless, officers planned a visible presence for Friday’s school dismissal, according to Derderian.
“Unfortunately, this seems to be more on school campuses throughout the country and although this one was a swatting call, school officials and students need to take it seriously as it was handled today until police can confirm the legitimacy,” Derderian said.
Also Friday, a phone call indicating a man was roaming a Riverside high school campus while armed prompted a major public safety response, though the call ultimately appeared to have been a hoax.
“It looks like it may have been a swatting call, but we’re investigating,” Riverside Police Department spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback said. “Our officers are at the campus, conducing a room-by-room search. It’s secure.”
The “active shooter” call was received at 3 p.m. Friday at Arlington High School, 2951 Jackson St., according to police. At 3:30 p.m., an “all-clear” broadcast was issued to all fire department and ambulance crews staging adjacent to the campus’ athletic field, releasing them from further alert status.
Railsback said the campus was absent students Friday, though at the time of the call, faculty and staff were gathered for an administrative day.
“They were placed on lockdown in classrooms,” he said.
No one was injured.
Investigations into the swatting calls to local schools were underway, and no suspects were immediately identified.
Also on Friday afternoon, the Claremont Police Department received a phone call from the Suicide Hotline reporting they had received a call from someone stating they shot their relatives inside a home in the 4000 block of Las Casas Ave. The caller gave details of the shooting to the Suicide Hotline, including the number of victims and the weapon used.
Claremont Police Department officers, along with personnel from La Verne and Pomona Police Departments, arrived to investigate the call. There were no victims found at the location and no signs ofany crime.
“Extensive resources were used in response to the call for service, which was later determined to be a false report or “swatting incident,” Claremont police said in a news release.
While dispatchers and police take calls reporting violence seriously, some are concerned that swatting calls could eventually create complacency at campuses, where active shooter alerts and drills have become a regular part of life.
“We have so many mass shootings in this country and so many young people die,” said Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “And so you can’t just blow it off because there has been a bunch of hoaxes.”
The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
