Understanding Swatting Hoaxes & Fake Threats of School Violence

April 18, 2024
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Swatting, as coined by the FBI, is when a false report is filed alleging active shooters, mass casualties, or other violence with the purpose of creating a massive law enforcement response to a particular location.

A widespread issue throughout the United States, swatting incidents targeting schools peaked in 2023 with over 200 incidents in the month of March alone, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. And, in the first quarter of 2024, over 60 schools have been the target of swatting.

While these incidents have been determined to be fake, their impacts are very real, with schools enacting their lockdown protocols and local law enforcement responding as if the incident is credible. In some cases, concerned parents have arrived on-scene wanting to verify that the threats are false.

Incidents included anonymous reports or writings on bathroom walls that provided a date and time that the incident would occur. The objective is often seemingly innocent—such as to cancel or delay a scheduled exam. According to Hutto (TX) Chief of Police Jeff Yarbrough, “Years ago in schools, you would have people making these bomb threats during the time when you have tests so they can avoid going and taking the tests. And what we’re seeing now is just a progression of that same behavior to trigger law enforcement response to have an outcome that the caller or callers seek to engage.”

How swatting hoaxes impact schools

False alarms, including those caused by swatting, have the potential for a range of negative impacts. These can include:

Safety of those responding or in the vicinity of the location as first responders arrive in a heightened state of alert ready to respond to a dangerous situation.
Emotional consequences for staff, students, and parents/guardians who, even for a brief time, experience the emotions of being in a real life-threatening situation. The National Institute of Mental Health recommends limiting exposure to news coverage about the situation, maintaining normal routines, and contacting a health care provider if any new issues occur.
Potential lax response to future security alerts creating a “cried wolf” situation, diminishing the response time of those involved should a real emergency arise in the future.
Cost to taxpayers is another concern as each incident requires the same full attention and response that a real threat of violence requires, using valuable financial and human resources during response and in the post-event investigation.
Pre-attack surveillance can provide potentially dangerous insight into any security gaps that could be leveraged for a real attack.

Mitigating the impact of swatting on students and staff

Fake threats can cause trauma and emotional distress in students, faculty and parents. Learn more about taking a proactive approach to swatting in Strategies to Prevent and Respond to Swatting—but when schools do experience a swatting incident, here are a few considerations to help mitigate its impact on students and staff.

“The Raptor app is the fastest and easiest way to communicate and avoid as many problems or damage as possible in the event of an emergency.” – Dalia Tammo, Emergency Management User at Glendale Unified School District in California.

Enabling two-way communication capabilities gives administrators the ability to communicate with staff quickly and discreetly during an incident. In the event of a swatting incident, administrators can update staff and reduce the amount of time they and their students believe an active shooter incident is imminent.
Engaging those impacted by fake threats in a conversation to talk through what thoughts, feelings, and emotions they experienced can provide an opportunity to validate feelings and concerns. Continuing an open dialogue for the days, weeks, and months following potentially traumatic events lets students know they have a safe place to process their thoughts about the experience.
Educating students about swatting, what to do if they hear about a potential threat and how to keep themselves safe in the event of a lockdown empowers them to help combat insecurities that swatting events may bring up.

Additionally, teaching students about the potential harm of swatting—particularly the trauma and increased risk it poses to their peers—could reduce the chances of a student executing such a threat.

It is also critical that staff is trained to recognize the signs of a student who is struggling. Though subtle, these small cues—called low-level concerns—can provide counseling staff with the insight they need to support students sooner.

Document Low-level Concerns with Raptor StudentSafe

Schools need the right set of tools to help document and recognize patterns of concerning behavior to best support students.

Staff observations of patterns indicating a student needs guidance are often recorded in multiple locations like email, written notes, and hallway conversations—but this means leaving gaps that some students may slip through without receiving care.

Instead, it’s important to centralize all these concerns so counselors can have a clear, coherent chronology of a student’s experience. Counselors could intervene much sooner, leveraging their expertise when problems are still manageable. In more serious situations, they could even escalate a concern into an assessment of potential harm to self or others, offering all the relevant information within the same system.

Raptor StudentSafe™ is the sole K-12 software that captures student wellbeing policies in a secure platform. It enables logging minor concerns and seamless escalation to formal protocols, fostering staff collaboration and enhancing student support.

Providing all school staff—janitors, bus drivers, and office staff as well as teachers and administrators—with the means to share concerns about a student with the school counselor creates a network of observers. With documented concerns only viewable by approved staff, this empowers your school counselors with a deeper, more holistic understanding of student needs.

Learn practical next steps and insights to improve your school’s student wellbeing practices in the webinar Turning Policy Into Action.