Hoax school shootings: inside America's epidemic 

This is so sick.. False callers should be treated as terrorists in these particular situations..

This reminds me of my college days in the 1970s with bomb threats. That was big. Entire buildings would have to be evacuated. At my college, there were a lot of bomb threats. They finally figured out who it was based on exams certain teachers had scheduled. This dope didn’t want to take the test so he would call in a bomb threat

You pretty much have to go into sim and phone registration to stop this; The caller has to be identified somehow every time they dial into 911 or any other emergency line. What's scary is the tactical value of this to criminals. Imagine calling in a hoax-shooting as a prelude to an actual crime to pull cops to an entirely different part of the city.

This happened to my high school. Around the end of lunch, suddenly we went into lockdown. Swat storming through the school, everyone brought group by group into the gym to be metal detectored & accounted for. We were all stuck there till fairly late on the evening. When all is said and done, turns out some kids angry ex gf called swat and said he had a weapon in school. Its such a sad and disgusting waste of resources, waste of kids and teachers time, and shock and trauma that nobody needed.

RU-vidrs and Twitch streamers get SWATted all the time and I haven't heard of ONE SINGLE PERSON being charged for making those false reports.

A whole nation growing up with PTSD.

This is truly terrible, especially because if it happens in large enough numbers, true shootings may eventually be doubted.

Any SWATing call must be a felony with mandatory jail time.

It might be a game of wearing the police down, so that during a real attack they hesitate in sending in the heavy squads. I hope the police always remain prepared.

How someone could do something so awful confounds me

There was a hoax call at my HS back in the late 2000s and I remember just thinking this is how it ends, the teacher unplugged the landline from the wall in case any noise from it gave us away. I remember a student struggling with how to shut down their new Motorola Razor. All we could hear was silence broken by the helicopter and police dogs as they passed near us. I hope whoever it was paid for the hours of terror we passed. Sports Med class was never the same after that😮

This is intimately connected with the robo-calling problem. Phone providers have been doing everything in their power to avoid accountability. Concealing the identity of a caller is key for the success of robocall marketing as well as swatting. The same solutions for robocalling will go a long way to solving this problem as well. When the FCC stops turning a blind eye to the problem, we will finally see some actual progress on this.

I went through this several times in middle school in The 90’s….my mom still works in the school system and they get at least several threats a year…

Not only is this domestic terrorism and should be charged as so, but they should also get charged with every single crime that occurs, every live lost from medical being relocated and any damage that firefighters would have been tasked with within the affected departments from the moment the call is made until the forces are back to their posts. Moves like this would cause deaths and destruction from pulling people away from their important jobs, not to mention allow for crimes that otherwise would have been interupted by police,

Well, if you do this, you should go to prison for a minimum of 15 years. End of discussion.

On one hand, I would consider this training and an assessment of readiness. When training for situations like this, false calls are just part of the process. You don't realize what you're missing in your response until you experience it, and you don't want to experience it for the first time when it's a real situation with lives on the line. My working dogs, teammates and I have been through so many false alarms that when the time finally came for it to be real, my entire team was like a well-oiled machine, rather than dozing cats woken up with a bucket of cold water. But yeah, after it gets to a point, it gets exhausting and you start getting slower and sloppier in your response, and you don't want that lazy day to be the day when it's a real situation that requires your full attention.

Remember that the cops should NOT be blamed here. They were attempting to save the kids every time they went there.

Criminalizing this will bring it down. Kids doing this have no consequences, and everything is a joke to them. This is a soical media trend, teens only care about what their peers think about them

I think I should just give up on videos related to the USA

False callers should be treated as terrorists in these particular situations.

My high school in the 80’s in Australia had at least a half a dozen hoax bomb threats in the three years I was there.

This is a very uniquely American problem

It seems that a new and necessary protocol is to call the place that is reported. This could get a positive report if anything is going on, and let the school office know what has happened. Whether it's real or swatting, the school could be forewarned and the staff could not be bewildered when officers arrive. If it's real they might be able to lock down before the bad guy arrives.

I think it is wide spread, here where I live in the Caribbean usually there isn't much of this kind of thing happening maybe once a year or so but in the last few years its like every month there is a bomb threat for several schools. Even last week there was a bomb threat for several all-girls schools being targeted, the police was stretch so thin they had to send a few officers to each to confirm that there was no threat and they moved to the next school it was quite shocking.

1. The less reporting about this, the better. It's increaing because its becoming normalized through media. This also goes for real shootings. 2. Stiffer penalties. Generally speaking, punishments are weak. One argument is it's too expensive to house offenders, but the irony is we have so many offenders because the punishments are not severe enough.

When I was in high school 1998-2001, we had bomb threats during my senior year almost daily for MONTHS. NO JOKE. They would bring the dogs and the police and we’d have to either evacuate, or just not go. A lot of times, it would happen just before school. They never caught anyone. This was back before most people had cell phones, and there weren’t cameras everywhere. They were likely using pay phones.

This doesn't sound much different from the rash of school bomb threats in the 80s, just updated.

my school got this done multiple times last year the swat team came out guns in our face and left… my school let school go on like it was nothing i literally had to finish my AP exam like i if we didn’t just go through that😢

Both of my 2 closest online friends and myself had a threat made to their schools over the past two weeks.

But apparently guns aren't the problem.. 😒

Ye last year we had a lockdown bc of a reported school shooting that was fake. The cops came out with ARs and everything i had to text my mom that i loved her, its so scary to not know if you or your friends might be brutally murdered.

Does this even happen in other countries too? Why has this barbaric act been associated with USA?

These are pretty easy to sniff out on the 911 call center side... they rarely if ever come in on the actual local 911 lines, but instead on the 10-digit lines (red flag #1)... they're almost always VOIP phones rather than local cellphones (red flag #2), the person's vocal inflection usually doesn't match that of someone who is really in that mindset (you start to develop a sense for these things - red flag #3), there are often telltale background noises - or no background noises you'd expect to hear in a school or workplace setting for instance, and most importantly and most obvious, there aren't corresponding calls from other people onsite, staff, neighbors, etc. Obviously you still follow through for completions sake, but documenting the pieces that don't quite line up so that responders have much better context.

And over the shooting / hoax incidents hangs the gigantic liability hammer, that if a 140% response is not mounted, and anything happens, the lawsuits will be in the hundreds of millions, if not billions.

Back in the 90's when i was a teacher the vp came into the teachers lounge , informed us there had been a bomb threat and ordered us to look for the bomb. We actually walked around the school looking in lockers etc.. With no idea what it would even look like. It was actually kind of humorous because we got threats all the time and knew there wasn't one... But still that's pretty f'd up. And people wonder why there's a teacher shortage..lol

We need security guards guarding the school so that if there is a call, the guard can confirm if it's a hoax or not

Is this any worse than "SWATTING" at residential homes?

Doesn't the police just try to call the school while they're leaving?

One of my little sister's classmates did this some years ago. It was horrifying.

Just imagine the amount of money wasted to get helicopters in air and police squads to get there + all the other actions that need to take place. It's probably in hundreds of thousands of dollars......wasted........... just because of a hoax call.

I had 3 bomb threats at my religious school in the early to mid 1970's. This was an era when there really were large bombs going off regularly throughout the nation. Each time we were evacuated far from the buildings and had to stay there for several hours until the school was swept for explosive devices, and an "all clear" was determined. As children we actually enjoyed it because it broke up the monotony of the school day. There was not the slightest bit of psychological trauma that any of us suffered. Even the parents seemed relatively unconcerned. The fact that that mother's voice began cracking as she fought back tears shows just how far we have changed as a people and society. For better or for worse, we really have become extremely emotionally fragile people in this country during the course of my lifetime.

This is an easy problem to fix.... 1. End "Gun Free Zones" 2. Ad more security guards, and train and arm the teachers, staff, and volunteer parents. 3. Teach self defense, including firearms training, as a core class in every level of school, and post school. This would be a quality start to protecting against both real, and fake, attacks.

A lot of nuts out there and growing!

2 years jail is warranted.

SWATting calls should be felonious everywhere.

SWAT officers do not have machine guns. Out of the probably hundreds of badge cams I've seen, I've only ever seen one instance of an U.S. police officer using a machine gun.

So.. The general consensus seems to be, punish the caller the most severely! You'd think that it'd be more about gun control, mental health, call screening, etc. Since the first one is something that must not be talked about and the second just an excuse to cite but never funded to prevent, howabout phoning the school to check? Speed is of the essence? In Texas (was it Texas?) cops were waiting outside, with the gunman confirmed inside with hostages, for like... 40minutes iirc. Lot's of death. Speed without a plan usually doesn't work.

If one looked into how many school shootings and resulting fatalities there were prior to the firearm ban on school properties. Shootings were few and far between, and they did go down for 2 years but skyrocketed soon thereafter. The cold, hard fact is that this wasn't much of a problem until we made it a problem.

People are going to different length to skip school 💀

If the government wanted to fix this problem, just like the real events, they’ll be able to. You really think the government can’t track down these people who are making the call? There’s just no political incentives to do so. That’s how every decision is made in our country, whether or not it benefit the politicians. They don’t care about the lives and well being of the general population. We are just numbers to them.

How bout schools provide 1 entrance with 1 armed security and a scanner?

They'll probably argue, not completely without merit, that they were "testing your response".

Love the soundtrack

Everyone now has instructions on how to SWAT in America and not get caught

On Tuesday this week our school went into lockdown because a threat was called in. That was the most tortuous hour and a half of my life. I thought that I was going to die.

A lot of these are being done in the Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana area. These areas are, if not over a huge, geographic, swath, at least geographically linked. Somebody needs to get on that.

they don't see it as something that's wrong to do. they do it so the feel powerful, scare someone, even just to get their friend out of school for the day because they want to skip. its pathetic

Not surprised. In the 2000s bomb threats were common post 9-11. Can’t count how many my middle school incurred. We knew the bomb threats were likely not real. Active shooter threats are another problem. Real terror.

In CPAC 2022: Republicans OUTRIGHT said "we're all domestic terrorists". This shouldn't shock anyone!

This is cruel

Considering the climate of the internet, I think this video needs a more detailed title

To cancel your subscription, The Economist forces you to chat with an agent or call their toll-free line. Then they will ask you multiple times to try various offers for ten minutes before FINALLY canceling your subscription. I will never subscribe to The Economist again!

Ive known guys my whole life who would pull a stunt like hoax calling just for kicks.

This alone would make me want to move to Europe or Asia as an American parent pretty much uniquely an American problem .

Kinda reminds me of all the bomb threats schools got in the 2000s

This doesn’t happen in Europe. There are not enough hand guns or magazine fed assault rifles among the public to make such threats credible.

Answer to problem, prepare, have a safe room, adult training, proper universal procedures that every school must follow. All hoax calls investigated and prosecuted, however, the process of responding is considered preparation of an actual situation. As usual, priorities are needing adjustment. Children should only know that there is a protocol, how to follow it, and when it's time, adults need to be in charge. Be prepared, not scared.

America is a very sick patient.

Interesting

Why you wouldn't interview the children is beyond me.

5:48 why would anyone pay another person to do this? What could they possibly get out of it?

I don't see how this qualifies as terrorisim. It is certainly 'terrifying', but, technically, terrorism is the application of non-state/ illegal violence or the threat thereof in the pursuit of a political/ideological goal; I don't see that component in these examples. I admit it may exist, though, again, the dissemination and advancement of a particular motivating ideology is the entire point of terrorism, so... Thoughts?

Welcome to america.

I have training in Special Weapons and No Tactics.

Armed police? is that different from police?

A failed nation under the guise of a superpower 😏

Whats happening in USA ? Thats terrible!

None in Texas 😂

Does anyone know who this reporter is? Her voice sounds so familiar. Thanks

Bring back online classes. Problem solved.

What see

It sounds like it could be a political game to force people to vote a certain way to "protect" themself in a specific way. The taking of the government could be one of those possibilities.

ooof America sounds like a horrible place.

I have no words.

so alex jones was right?

Kids, These pranks are not funny at all! Not only is it sick! You’re wasting to Cops’ time too by delaying their response time to real calls where people could actually be dying!

This has been going on forever, back before 9/11 kids would do this "bomb threat" cause they didn't want to take a test, we d all sit on the lawn laughing and what not, , then it became "real" after 9/11, and even worse now with all the actual school shootings. We now live in a world where gun violence is very real in schools, but kids are still kids, and cant really think of the full magnitude of what their doing.

1:34 Yes and no. In a real active shooter situation that first officer on scene better go into that building to end the threat as quickly as possible

Here’s a thought: how about we actually tackle our gun problem?

This is so sick.

This is an added effect of removing discipline from the school system. These people grow up now and think that trolling law enforcement is funny, some of the children think it's ok too because almost none of these folks both young and older DON'T GET THE DISCIPLINE WHILE THEY ARE GROWING UP TO TEACH THEM ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. Schools just push students through, even the failing ones and do hardly anything to discipline anyone so everyone just does what they want with no consequences.

Glad it was a hoax call. But raises serious concern about school shootings in the US 😢

American problems

be like Germany

I just want to thank all the republicans who ignored the events of Sandy Hook and continued to push guns and endangered our entire society. This is just one more side effect of Republicans quest for unlimited power

7:30 They looked exactly as expected.

Parenting & mental health crisis.

The problem is excessive amount of government, over-reaction, and law enforcement effectively creating these incidents by the way they're responding to these unverified calls and thus making the public afraid of non-genuine-threats. These "threats" aren't being handled appropriately as can be evidenced by the overwhelming response to what should be non-incidents if law enforcement reacted appropriately by first verifying the threats or giving them an appropriate level of attention relative to their ability to be authenticated. An anonymous call should not be assumed legitimate. Are you getting multiple calls about the same incident? OK, now you should maybe consider that there is a threat. BUT lets go back a bit and talk about why we have these threats. There shouldn't be government indoctrination camps or public schools in the first place. You're creating discontent groups of people who recognize their own abuse by the state. Education is important, but this isn't how a civil society should operate. Pointing guns at people and using violence is extreme and yet it's the first and only thing the government knows how to do. EVEN the schools. Don't go to school? An armed man shows up and forces you using violence or threats of violence. It's time to end government programs, taxes, and leave everything to the individual to decide and pay for. There is no reason we can't have everything we want, but we can't have what each individually wants AND government theft/violence at the same time and the socialist system as it is doesn't work well.

Back in highschool kids would call in fake bomb threats everytime they didnt want to take a test. Absolute nightmare for everyone.

so sorry bout you peeps really really sorry pray you have kids in school