LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools students involved in Wednesday's swatting incident said although it was a fake call, the trauma is still very real.
The district said duPont Manual High School, Noe Middle School and Olmsted Academy North were on heightened security levels on Wednesday morning. duPont Manual and Olmsted Academy were the targets of "swatting" calls. Noe Middle School had increased security because of its shared campus with Manual, according to JCPS.
Swatting is an illegal practice of falsely reporting life-threatening emergencies at a person's home, causing heavily armed police, and sometimes SWAT teams, to rush to the scene. In some cases, the situation can turn deadly.
"We got an announcement and it said 'Lockdown. This is not a drill,'" Marshall Coomes, Manual High School student, said. "The reality of it all didn't really hit me until I woke up this morning how severe the event could have been."
The FBI is now part of the investigation into the swatting calls, that targeted several schools, including Manual, Noe Middle School, and Olmsted Academy North.
"The feelings of panic and not being sure of our safety, and the anxiety, and the stress that comes with hearing cop sirens outside your schools and seeing cops with assault rifles outside your school, all of that was very real," said Coomes.
The Louisville Metro Police Department and the FBI are investigating Wednesday's incident, and other swatting events this year. Threats were also made to schools in Lexington, Cincinnati, and Evansville.
"They obfuscate their identity by using voiceover IP and other methods so people cannot identify or locate them," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Nathan Head.
Because the person is masking their identity, Head said it makes it difficult to track them down.
In June, the FBI developed a database for all law enforcement agencies to work together to find connections in the calls, which often results in finding out the suspect was making these threats from outside of the country.
"This is yet another scheme and type of threat that taxes not only law enforcement, but schools, businesses around our communities," Head said.
But, Head said, they will always treat it as a real threat and students still feel the effects of thinking it's a real threat.
"I hope to see you brought to justice and I hope to see you dealt with accordingly," Coomes said. "Because you have potentially traumatized communities for the rest of their lives, and they might not ever feel safe in school ever again because of you."
Last year, Kentucky legislators passed House Bill 48, which makes falsely reporting an incident that results in emergency response a Class D felony.
Carolyn Callahan, chief of communications for JCPS, said Wednesday that the district would have mental health resources available for students to talk about the incidents.
Related Stories:
- Reports show increase in swatting calls to schools in recent years
- JCPS says it experienced 'swatting calls' at multiple schools resulting in heightened security
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