As NNY districts face threats, Gray pushes for bill to make 'swatting' a felony

Apr. 4—ALBANY — A number of school districts in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties opened late Tuesday after receiving threats of significant violence, and a north country legislator is working to garner support for a bill that would make those threats a felony crime.

On Tuesday, eight school districts in St. Lawrence County and one in Jefferson County received threats of violence against their schools, prompting a serious police response and delayed schedules for hundreds of students.

In Jefferson County, the General Brown School District received an emailed threat early Tuesday morning.

"Apparently it was a bomb threat," said Jefferson County Sheriff Peter R. Barnett. "They had to evacuate."

The case is being handled by state police, who confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they had investigated and found it was "not a credible threat."

The St. Lawrence County school districts of Canton, Edwards-Knox, Gouverneur, Hermon-Dekalb, Madrid-Waddington, Massena, Lisbon and Morristown also delayed opening Tuesday after receiving threats.

In Albany, Tuesday's rash of threats garnered the attention of Governor Kathleen C. Hochul, who said more than 50 school districts statewide had received threats in central New York, Long Island, the southern tier and the north country.

"I want to reassure parents that their children are safe at school," she said. "Swatting threats are false and intended to cause panic and scare students, teachers and families."

The Governor said she had directed the New York State Police to investigate the threats, coordinating among all levels of law enforcement to catch the people making them.

"Since the first round of swatting incidents occurred last week, State Police has been working closely with the state Education Department, county leadership and local school boards to provide support and any necessary resources to address these incidents," she said.

Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, has been working to find support for a bill he's introduced that would make such threats a felony crime. They're currently only a misdemeanor.

Making threats that illicit a heavy police response is called "swatting," because they can lead to a response from heavily armed SWAT teams. Across New York state in the last week, dozens of school districts have received some sort of threat, or police received false reports of active shooters at a district school. The response for either case is similar, with schools locked down or evacuated and a heavy police response to the scene.

Assemblyman Gray said he wants to see more penalties for the people making those threats.

"The chaos they create, not just with the people they target but the entire community, it's much worse than simply making a false report to police about something like vehicle damage, standard falsely reporting an incident charges," he said.

He said school districts are especially impactful targets because of the fears surrounding school violence, and how common school shootings have become.

"Now you have parents that are nervous, anxiety levels are up," he said. "You have students and teachers who are anxious, and it just does not make for a good school environment."

Sheriff Barnett said it's become difficult to catch people who make swatting threats.

"The infrastructure for phone systems has become so complicated, you need a degree just to be able to decipher and locate a call. We need all the resources we can get from the IT world to locate the source of where these things originate from."

Mr. Gray agreed.

"Whether we station law enforcement and have an officer actually sitting in dispatch to weigh in on calls, but you almost have to have forensic dispatchers now to judge these calls sometimes," he said. "But at the same time you don't want to make the wrong call."

The sheriff said he believes it's time for federal law enforcement to come to New York and the other communities where schools are facing frequent threats of violence, to use all tools at their disposal to locate the source of the threats.

"I'm not sure if even the state has the resources," he said. "It's time to bring in the heavy hitters for the federal government to locate the exact source of these messages."

He said he supports Mr. Gray's bill to make swatting a more serious crime.

Mr. Gray said he began work this week to circulate his proposed law to legislators in Albany. He hasn't heard back from anyone yet, but said he's still hopeful to get more supporters.

The swatting cases even garnered the attention of Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, who represents St. Lawrence County and eastern Jefferson County in Congress.

"The soulless criminals who committed these shameful and cowardly illegal acts must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," she said. "I thank our local and state law enforcement who are working to investigate these threats, so perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."