MECCA 911, Morgantown High targeted in statewide 'swatting' hoax

Dec. 8—No, I'm a teacher.

I've got kids in here who have been shot. That's right, my classroom.

No, I don't know how bad they are.

Yeah, there's somebody in the building.

Yeah, they're still shooting. Please get here.

I have to go.

So went the call (paraphrased) that came into MECCA 911 on Wednesday morning.

It was 9 a.m., and there was an active shooter at Morgantown High School, the male voice said.

Except ... there wasn't.

When the caller disconnected, the dispatcher immediately scrambled city police and the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department to the red-bricked school on Wilson Avenue.

Within two minutes, the first of the first responder units began rolling up, and when they trooped in, they found — nothing.

And MECCA 911 wasn't the only emergency call center hit by the cruel ruse. Marion County got the same call, too.

So did Harrison County.

Police and paramedics in Barbour and Cabell counties hit the road with sirens wailing and lights flashing, and so did their counterparts in Ohio County.

Kanawha, Mercer, Raleigh, Taylor, Wirt and Wood, also.

Authorities in nearby states of Ohio and Kentucky reported the same that morning.

Say hello to "swatting " — the high-tech act of calling 911 and faking an emergency, in order to draw large contingents of law officers to the scene.

Getting the SWAT team there, of course, is the big prize.

The social phenomenon of the above has been around for several years, usually as a prank or an act of revenge singled at a person.

However, there's a new target this fall: School districts, and individual schools, in particular.

Which is putting the students who sit in classrooms and the parents and other caregivers who send them off daily, especially on edge.

That's because school shootings — classmates murdering classmates — are now as common as the pep rally in the gym before the Homecoming game.

Responses first and fast — no matter what After the mass shooting in Uvalde last spring, the swatting calls to schools also became more common.

Such gun violence puts the laser scope on a dimension already there to begin with, WVU sociology professor and department chair Jim Nolan said.

"It's psychological warfare, " said Nolan, who was a beat cop and researched hate crime for the FBI before joining academia.

"And you can't discount it when these calls come in. You have to respond."

One morning this past October, 15 fake calls came in to 911 centers in North Carolina, meaning 15 real responses, nonetheless.

But with the increased wave of hoax calls, will that diminish the instinct and the urgency ?

No, the professor said, and he's speaking from further experience in law enforcement.

Nolan started as a beat cop in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., where he made it a mission to trek to the rough neighborhoods, in order to launch a community policing program and build trust of the people wearing the badge who often show up at the end of something bad.

While perpetrators of swatting want the response and the angst, the policing mantra, "To Protect and Serve, " will always be the rule, he said.

"Officers and other responders are always going to be there."

The West Virginia Department of Homeland Security echoed the professor and former policeman Wednesday.

Vigilance and appreciation "Each threat is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated, " said Jeff Sandy, department secretary.

"We are 100 % committed to ensuring the health, safety and well-being of students and communities, " he added.

Rob Cunningham, Sandy's deputy secretary, said the same last summer when he rolled out the department's new school safety initiative he helped author.

It was crafted, in part, as a response to Uvalde. The department also rolled out a "See Send " app, which enables people to send anonymous tip over ongoing safety concerns — or, say, the sudden sighting of anyone armed on a school campus who doesn't look like they there.

"School safety isn't the math teacher's responsibility or the principal's responsibility, " the former West Virginia state trooper and federal agent said then.

"It's everyone's responsibility."

Meanwhile, the head of Monongalia County Schools said he was just relieved Wednesday wasn't the real thing.

Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. didn't waste any time sending a message to parents saying things were safe at MHS and its surrounding South Park neighborhood once the scene was cleared.

"I just really appreciate our first responders, " he said.

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