False shooting threats

On Nov. 30, there were false shooting threats at several high schools around Georgia, including at a high school in the Fulton County Schools (FCS) system.

Photo courtesy of Fulton County Schools.

Carter Willis, Sports Editor, McKenna Ryan, Staff Writer & Disha Kumar, Editor-in-Chief

On Nov. 30, 2022, multiple high schools across Georgia received false threats of an active shooter on campus. The first reports were of a gunman near the Savannah Early College Campus. There were no threats. Later, fake reports came from Cartersville High School, Brunswick High School, Camden County High School, Valdosta High School, Westside High School, and Baldwin High School. Cambridge High School in Fulton County also received a false report. The false threat emerged from a recent gaming trend known as swatting.

 Swatting started with gamers who were trying to kick people off of games so they could win. Gamers would call the police and send them to that person's house to say there was a gun or a shooter. The SWAT team would then have to sweep a location where there was no real threat or real problem. Now, this has become somewhat of a norm for schools. 

“I would say over the last year, [swatting] has become a much bigger issue,” Cambridge Principal Ashley Agans said. “I spoke to the head of security because I debriefed with the superintendent and some cabinet members yesterday. The figures I was given [showed] that there had been 128 [swatting] incidents over the last month in over 24 different states.”

This was the first time that an incident of a false threat occurred at Cambridge. An unknown source called 911 and claimed to be a Cambridge teacher. However, this was the only call to 911 from Cambridge, a telling factor that the call was a false report. Though no shooter was active on campus, the campus still went into hard lockdown. The Miltonville Police, including a SWAT team, arrived at the school before the campus went into hard lockdown. 

“I happened to be in the front office talking with my front office aides when I looked out of the window and saw two officers in SWAT gear walking to my front door,” Agans said. “I ran to the door to ask what was going on, and that's when they told me, ‘we've gotten a call that there's an active shooter at Cambridge.’ The officers were telling me that it was ‘OK.’ So, as a principal, all I can think is that they're telling me it's ‘OK,’ but, in the back of my head, I knew what I needed to do, so I immediately called a hard lockdown.”

Students were in hard lockdown for around an hour. Students were told that it was not a drill over the intercom, but there was confusion among some because the word drill had been in the message over the intercom, which led to the belief that it was a drill. Despite this, students and teachers caught on pretty quickly that it was not a drill because police officers were on campus. At this point, those in classrooms began to barricade the doors. Many students also texted their parents to make them aware of the situation.

“No one knew if it was a drill or not,” Cambridge senior Aiza Kidwai said. “So, for the first 10 minutes or so, it was a moment of denial because we didn't really process that it was happening to us.” 

The reactions of students at Cambridge greatly varied; the mood of the room differed from class to class, and the location of the classrooms determined how informed the students and teachers were. For example, students with windows to the parking lot immediately saw the police officers. The word spread around the school as those students then texted other students. 

“Our group in our classroom—and I've heard a lot of different reactions from a lot of different classrooms—was not too terrible,” Cambridge junior Clay Spencer said. “We weren't too terribly nervous. We did [all of the procedures], but, aside from that, we just kind of sat in the back [of] the classroom. There was a very large window that led to the outside of our classroom and we were on the first floor. So, if we heard anything or felt that we needed to leave, then we did plan to break that window and get out.”

The teachers at Cambridge also had varied approaches regarding how to keep their classrooms safe. All schools have a plan for what the students are to do during a hard lockdown situation, but not all schools have a set role for the teacher. This is where it is often up to the teachers’ discretion on how to protect their classroom while the students are hiding behind a barricade to the door. 

“While many students were texting their parents to assure them they were alright, we hid towards the back, and my teacher stood at the door with scissors in his hands,” Kidwai said. “I don't know how effective that would have been, but we were on the second floor and didn’t have an area to run to.”

While there was communication with parents through the students, there was also an e-mail that was sent out to the parents so that they knew what was going on from the administration at Cambridge. The initial e-mail was sent by the principal to make parents aware of the situation, which was followed by another e-mail after the school came out of its hard lockdown. Another communication tool used was by the administration and teachers—an app called CrisisGo. This is an app for teachers as well as officials in the Fulton County Schools (FCS) system that alerts staff of any drills or emergency situations. 

 “All of [the staff] have an app called CrisisGo on our phone, and I hit the button for an active shooter,” Agans said. “I sent that, and it automatically goes to my zone superintendent and FCS security. When I sent that, I could type in notes, so I put in ‘Milton [police] believe that this is a hoax, however, we're going to follow protocol and they're going to sweep the building.’”

After the hard lockdown, the general vibe around campus was one of shock, but Cambridge students went on with their day like normal. Cambridge was in the spotlight along with the other schools that experienced false threats on Nov. 30., even receiving a tweet of acknowledgment from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. The days following the situation at Cambridge and the affected schools have been the same as usual but with more talk about the threat.

 “There hasn't been all that much that has changed since then, but people are talking about the situation and referencing the situation,” Kidwai said. “I do think that the school has done a really good job of re-emphasizing hard lockdown protocols, especially in our advisement classes. My adviser and teachers [have] been talking a lot about the strict procedures for what we have to do and what we could do better next time.”

Using new strategies and reassessing plans during the case of an active shooter during a hard lockdown is something that has been on the mind of the Cambridge administration following the false threat. The first aspect administrators hope to modify is how they speak over the intercom, given the confusion during the hard lockdown. They have also decided to reform other procedures, such as the frequency of drills. 

“We've talked more about the idea of, from this point forward for Cambridge, when we do drills, to join them with a scenario attached,” Agans said. “We would [go on the intercom and say] ‘hey, there's a fire in the 1200 hall and everyone needs to evacuate.’ Now, knowing that there is a fire in the 1200 hall, [students] actually are thinking ‘oh I’m in the 1200 hall, I can't go right because that's the way I would normally go, so I have to go left.’”

Another problem that occurred was the volume of parents who showed up during the hard lockdown. The school was trying to keep as many students safe as possible, but, with several parents in plain sight in the parking lot, they became active targets for the shooter. 

“I've already talked to parents saying that they can't come on campus [during a hard lockdown],” Agans said. “The reality of that situation is, if we actually had an active shooter on campus, they couldn't get their kids anymore. It’s because, when there are 50 parents standing outside the front of the building, I don't know whether [the shooters are] going to attack them, and I don't have anyone to protect them because I'm protecting the building and the kids in the building.”

Although Northview has not faced a shooting threat in the past, other factors in the past have initiated lockdown drills, including the actions of parents of students. When adults have matters of custody arrangements or other personal situations that can be brought into the school building, things can escalate quickly.

“When it's your kids, you're very emotional, and, when people are emotional, sometimes they're not thinking,” Northview Principal Martin Neuhaus said. “We've had those situations that kind of dictated to us to go into a lockdown just to make sure that students are safe because you don't know what an adult or a visitor who's emotional and irate is going to do.”

In situations like this, Neuhaus takes every step as an opportunity to learn. Whether it's for future instances of similar magnitude, of greater magnitude, or even outside of school, Neuhaus has emphasized one rule of thumb: not waiting to call 911.

“Don't wait to call 911,” Neuhaus said. “A lot of times, people feel like ‘Oh, I'm going to get in trouble if I call 911,’ but we want to really empower anyone to do it.”

This helped the authorities determine that the Nov. 30 shooting threat was a hoax. With more than 2,000 students, the single 911 call about the Cambridge shooter signal was a red flag. However, there was a problem with a lack of communication with school officers during the hard lockdown situation.

“[Officer Ellis] wears a walkie that's connected to FCS police. He also wears a walkie that's connected to me,” Neuhaus said. “He helps me and our whole admin team work together to make sure that all of our kids and students are safe.” 

However, the situation is different when students step off school property and onto social media. In October of last year, a Snapchat post went viral threatening a shooting at Denmark High School. Authorities later found that the post was not credible.

“The more we have social media, the less we're really connected. The fewer real connections we have, the more we will try to replace that with something like social media,” Neuhaus said. “Human beings need real connections, and when you don't have those morals, this stuff happens.”

In August 2022, a Northview student’s backpack contained a BB gun and drugs. Neuhaus continues to stress the important role students and parents have in the safety of everyone at the school after situations like this one.

“We can't check backpacks every day, so that needs to be something that parents need to participate in,” Neuhaus said. “Safety is everyone's business. We all need to be paying attention. We need to be looking out for each other.”

This important role, however, extends beyond physical awareness; it encapsulates emotional awareness too. Neuhaus prioritizes the mental well-being of students, emphasizing its importance and its effects.

“We're looking for someone who doesn't have connections, who feels like they're all alone or nobody cares about them. It's not true,” Neuhaus said. “We all need to know that people care about us. We all need to know that we matter—that we're important and that we're valued. When people do those kinds of things, they're missing that.”