School Swatting: False Reports About Shooting Incidents Are Disrupting US Schools, Communities

Swatting is becoming common in America amid the rampant shooting cases which frequently happen in schools.

According to WIRED, there were over 90 fake reports about school shooters last month. The surprising part here is that the authorities see these as coordinated attacks--meaning that the cases are interconnected to one another.

It's a never-ending cycle of hoax calls about these mass murders. The problem has become a nuisance to the law enforcers and the whole community, as well.

School Swatting is Becoming a Norm

As WIRED found this week, the second half of September has recorded 99 false reports of school shooting incidents. The fake calls took place in Hollywood High, Iowa, Lincoln High, and more schools across the US.

Speaking of swatting, it's a kind of prank call where someone will dial up the SWAT team to respond to an emergency immediately. In this case, the authorities are forced to go to the schools where the mass shooting is said to have been occurring.

Out of 92 false reports that WIRED compiled, it was found that at least 32 of them were "coordinated" swatting. The cybercriminals behind this attack could be closely discussing how to pull out these prank calls as annoying as possible.

The interval of each call is only one minute, so it's questionable to think it only came from one perpetrator. The police believed it was a well-planned swatting campaign that was continuously propagating.

With these kinds of calls, the law enforcers are wasting time tracking the liable persons behind this scheme. It does not cost them their precious time; it's also impacting the emotional and financial capacity of the responders.

Taking a Toll on the Financial and Emotional Aspect

In another story by Marketplace, George Roberts, a former principal, said that swatting also affects the financial side of everyone who's involved in the hoax calls.

"If you took kind of the hourly pay of staff, whether it be me as a principal, the assistant principals, police officers and all the people, and kind of added that up . . . it could be probably anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars a day," Roberts said.

Apart from that, the community becomes disrupted by the sudden case to the point that classes are suspended to prioritize the safety of the students, teachers, and other school workers.

The worst part about swatting is how it can emotionally impact the students, staff, and even the citizens around the area.

Additionally, fake reports about school shootings will force more institutions to tighten security measures. This means that there's a need to spend money on this one.

Just this week, the FBI launched a special investigation regarding the fake reports that startled the South Carolina schools. According to the authorities, some victims said that the callers possibly came from other countries.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry