A disturbing trend is causing disruptions of school life across the country, forcing lockdowns and straining police resources, sowing fear and confusion among students, parents and educators, and tormenting already anxious communities.
The age of the active shooter has brought with it not only the frightful practice of mass casualty simulations in America’s classrooms but also unsettling and potentially dangerous false active shooter reports, or hoaxes known as “swatting.”
Nearly every week since the start of the academic year – and months after a teen gunman killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas – threats or false reports of active shooters have forced US schools from Maine to California to lockdown as law enforcement officers rushed to the scene.
