Pensacola swatting call one of several in Florida this week. Here's what you need to know.

Pensacola Catholic High School was not the only Florida school this week to fall victim to swatting calls or school shooting threats that tied up law enforcement resources and terrified teachers, students and parents.

An unidentified person called into the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday to report there was an active shooter at Pensacola Catholic, prompting an immediate law enforcement response that also included the Pensacola Police Department. Teachers received a code red and locked their doors, isolating students in a corner of each room, and deputies went room to room unlocking doors to check for intruders. The call was determined to be unfounded.

Swatting callActive shooter report at Pensacola Catholic High School is false alarm

Reaction:'It's nerve wracking because you’re helpless': Fake active shooter report causes real trauma

Swatting calls to Florida schools

Bay County High School in Panama City also went into lockdown Wednesday after someone made a 911 call reporting a shooting at the school. Much like the Pensacola incident, deputies searched the campus but found nothing, determining it to be a swatting call.

Bay County Sheriff's Officials officials said they believe the same person made similar calls to other Florida law enforcement.

“We just cannot stress enough how terrifying these situations are for everyone involved, including the parents but certainly the students and the staff and our whole community and we just wish law enforcement all the best in their active investigation,” Bay District Schools Director of Communications Sharon Michalik told WKRG News. “We hope that they find the person that was responsible.”

Manatee County sheriff’s deputies arrested three students this week for depicting a mass shooting on Thursday.

Two Parrish Community High School students were arrested for posting separate videos simulating a mass shooting on campus with a toy gun during a bomb threat evacuation at the high school on Tuesday. There isn't evidence at this time that connects the students to other recent threats at Parrish Community High School.

The students were taken to juvenile detention and charged with making written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting — a second-degree felony.

Manatee deputies also arrested a Buffalo Creek Middle School student for a similar video threat on Wednesday.

The arrests followed two threats at Parrish High School this week.

Meanwhile, in Sarasota County on Thursday, a social media rumor about a vague threat made against Sarasota High School caused the district to increase police presence and send a message to parents. The district's police department and the Sarasota County Police Department investigated and found no credible evidence to support the threat.

Florida threats:Three Manatee County students arrested for video threat

In October, a school in Sarasota and multiple schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, St. Lucie, and Collier locked down after receiving calls. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster called for an investigation after 18 school districts reported hoax 911 calls. Savannah High School was evacuated at the end of November after false reports of six staffers and students getting shot and similar calls were made to at least three other Georgia counties.

USA TODAY found at least 30 active shooter false alarms and threats made at schools in one week in September and WIRED reported more than 90 false reports of school shooters during three weeks that same month.

Here's what you need to know.

What is swatting?

"Swatting" is making a hoax call to law enforcement in the hopes of deliberately causing a large police or SWAT team response. Sometimes it's aimed at a specific person, sometimes it's just randomly done to cause chaos and tie up resources.

Many early instances of swatting were against gamers who were streaming themselves online while playing, which meant the hoaxsters might be able to enjoy watching police break down the door behind the hapless victim. It quickly became a way to harass anyone the caller wanted to antagonize and possibly cause harm.

Is swatting illegal?

Yes. Issuing a threat over social media, by text message or through e-mail is a federal crime (threatening interstate communications). People posting or sending such threats can receive up to five years in federal prison, or they can face state or local charges.

You also can be charged with a variety of things such as conspiracy to commit access device fraud and unauthorized access of a protected computer, misuse of 911 systems and other related crimes.

Is swatting dangerous?

Aside from reports of active shooters traumatizing students, staff and parents, anytime law enforcement must respond to a false call of an active shooter or mass casualties, there is the chance of accidents.

In 2017, California resident Tyler Barriss made a swatting call reporting a fake hostage situation after arguing with a fellow gamer playing "Call of Duty." He gave an address of an innocent, unrelated person who police ended up fatally shooting during their response. Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

"A crash injured a Georgia police officer who was responding to a falsely reported school shooting at a middle school Sep. 13," said Jay Farlow, spokesperson for the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) in an email. "An upset parent punched a window at a Texas high school September 19 while waiting for access to his child after a false shooting call at the school, leading officers on scene to apply a tourniquet."

They also drain significant resources from schools and local authorities and pull law enforcement attention away from actual crimes and emergencies.

Are these swatting attacks connected?

Authorities haven't publicly said the incidents are related, but experts say these intentional false reports have similarities. Their origins can be difficult or impossible to trace, but waves of false alarms are often the work of disgruntled pranksters trying to disrupt school or malicious bad actors trying to sow fear. And such hoaxes seem to increase around this time of year with students returning to classrooms.

"A red flag... is when you start seeing a chunk of these very similar threats in multiple cities in one area or region or state, and then others in another state. It's usually a red flag for what they call swatting," said Kenneth Trump, a school safety expert.

Is this swatting from a TikTok challenge?

While many local law enforcement and news media have suggested this is due to a TikTok challenge, no TikTok videos have surfaced calling for it.

Contributors: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal; Melissa Perez-Carrillo, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

C. A. Bridges is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network, working with multiple newsrooms across Florida.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: School swatting calls on the rise in Florida. What is it?