Panic then relief rippled across the Pittsburgh region Wednesday when a series of fake phone calls reporting active school shooters shattered the quiet of the mid-morning.
An Allegheny County spokesperson said the county 911 line had received two separate calls reporting an active shooter at two separate schools, Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic, but that authorities believed “these are false reports.” Similar calls targeted schools in numerous other counties across Western Pennsylvania and beyond.
Shortly before noon, Pittsburgh law enforcement officials said the scenes were clear at both schools. Officers, including heavily armed SWAT team members, went room by room in the schools, checking for anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there, Pittsburgh acting police Chief Tom Strangrecki told reporters.
“We treated it as a real incident,” he said. “We were prepared… to confront any active shooters in the building and protect any students.”
The scare came as schools elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in other states were rocked by similar false reports. Numerous high schools in Eastern Pennsylvania received such calls, Lehigh Valley Live reported. Such calls also hit dozens of schools in Massachusetts on Tuesday, according to Boston.com.
Cary Allen of Penn Hills, whose 17-year-old son is a Central Catholic senior, was terrified at first, and then relieved. “Some frustration afterwards but initially relief because I don’t want any of these kids to be hurt,” he said.
Mr. Allen, who graduated from Central Catholic in 1986, said he stayed in contact with his son, who “didn’t sound afraid or anything like that. … He knew we’d be worried.”
Pennsylvania State Police said they were investigating “a series of phone calls made to 911 centers about schools across the Commonwealth involving threats of an active shooter situation or bomb threat.” Authorities said they believed Wednesday’s calls were “computer generated.” Such false reports to law enforcement are often known as “swatting” and are meant to elicit a major police response.
Calls were received about schools in Allegheny, Beaver, Blair, Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Crawford, Erie, Fayette, Lehigh, Mercer and Northampton counties.
“I’m just glad nothing happened,” Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey told reporters. “Our greatest asset is our children. We have to keep them safe and we have to continue to work together to ensure that that happens.”
At least one school in New Jersey also received a similar call Wednesday morning. And schools across Ohio experienced similar hoax phone calls last week.
The false reports Wednesday came just two days after a 28-year-old shooter stormed into a private Christian school in Nashville and opened fire, killing three children and three adults before being fatally shot by police — and again putting schools on edge in a country that has grown increasingly numb to such shootings.
The first call Wednesday came in at 10:18 a.m. to UPMC Police, reporting that six people were shot at Central Catholic High School in Oakland. The caller said they were in a second-floor bathroom and that the shooter was still in the building, authorities said.
Brian Cook, a Central Catholic spokesman, said he and other administrators were huddled Wednesday morning in the school’s library with students, where they “tried to stay away from all windows just in case” as they saw “law enforcement running throughout the campus.”
“Were we afraid?” he said. “Yes, but were our students and faculty ready to go if this had been an active shooter? Yes. But as of right now there is a major sigh of relief.”
Brian Cook, spokesman for Central Catholic: pic.twitter.com/xfyoy0vxo4
— Megan Guza (@meganguzaPG) March 29, 2023
All Pittsburgh Public Schools, offices and facilities remained on a partial lockdown the rest of the day Wednesday. That meant no one could come into schools or school district offices unless they had previously scheduled appointments.
Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier said Hopewell Junior and Senior High Schools went into full lockdown at about 10:30 a.m., following similar reports of an active shooter.
Police swept the building and declared the scene clear just before 1 p.m. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Moon and Laurel Highlands High School in Fayette County also sheltered in place after receiving calls, and both schools were subsequently cleared.
Catherine Coennen, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said the agency is also investigating.
“FBI Pittsburgh is aware of the numerous swatting incidents wherein a report of an active shooter at a school is made,” she said. “The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. We urge the public to remain vigilant, and report any and all suspicious activity and/or individuals to law enforcement immediately.”
Ari Lightman, a digital media professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said “this is on the rise, for sure,” regarding false active shooter reports.
“Schools across the country are on heightened alert, and consequently when there’s this level of tension and anxiety and stress, people will take advantage of that,” Mr. Lightman said.
In October, NPR found that between Sept. 13 and Oct. 21, 128 schools across 28 states received swatting calls.
Mr. Lightman said there is a chance more false reports could be made, which would put a “huge stress and strain” on students, parents and law enforcement.
“There’s going to be a lot of resources taken out of the capacity to do other things while they investigate these alleged active shooting events,” Mr. Lightman said.
Wednesday’s calls were not the first time the region has experienced a wave of false threats.
In 2012, the University of Pittsburgh received more than 50 bomb threats regarding various buildings and locations around the university over a span of two months. The threats resulted in more than 100 evacuations — some at dorm rooms in the middle of the night.
A major concern then, and again now, is that the reports become so routine that people start to not take them seriously.
For every threat reported, the university went through a standard procedure: mass notification, evacuation of buildings and a search for explosives. No explosives were ever found. The university also implemented new procedures including limiting the number of open entrances to buildings and implementing security checks on people entering.
Pitt law professor David Harris, who was teaching on campus that semester, said that Wednesday’s swatting calls reminded him of 2012.
“I’m praying that we don’t see another string of such threats,” he said.
First Published: March 29, 2023, 3:19 p.m.
Updated: March 30, 2023, 12:18 p.m.