Perry police: Anonymous threat at St. Joan of Arc School was unfounded

PERRY TWP. – Police are investigating an anonymous threat made Tuesday morning that briefly put a Catholic elementary school on lockdown.

St. Joan of Arc School, at 120 Bordner Ave. SW, received a threat via telephone around 8:02 a.m. as students were beginning to arrive. The school was immediately put on lockdown.

According to the school's principal Dan Mitchell, it appeared the anonymous threat was likely a swatting incident but they followed safety protocols, which included the lockdown and alerting Perry Township Police.

School officials said students remained in their classrooms during the lockdown. Those arriving at school at the time sheltered in the gym. The school houses preschool through eighth grade and has about 274 students. The preschool students had not yet begun to arrive.

Perry Township Chief Bryan Taylor said his department investigated the anonymous threat and found it was not credible. The lockdown was lifted at 8:30 a.m.

Officials declined to disclose what was said by the caller as to "not encourage copycatting."

Taylor said the threat was very general and vague.

"It was very obvious (the caller) did not have any definitive knowledge of St. Joan of Arc," the chief said. "The important thing is we reacted quickly and got them back to the normal educational day (as quickly as possible)."

The call was likely a swatting incident, he said. Swatting is an action of making hoax phone calls usually resulting in a large response by emergency services.

"They are becoming very common and they are a drag on resources and very disruptive," Taylor added. "That's why we try to trace it back to (charge them) to the maximum extent of the law."

It may be difficult to track down the caller, he said, but his department will continue to investigate the threat.

"This one is going to be hard to trace due to the use of certain software used to cloud the path of the call," Taylor said.

While it was evident the anonymous threat was a prank call, school officials took it seriously and followed simulations they had practiced with Perry police in case of an emergency, Mitchell said.

Perry police responded quickly and in less than 30 minutes determined the threat was not credible, he added.

Reach Amy at 330-775-1135 or amy.knapp@indeonline.com.

This article originally appeared on The Independent: Anonymous threat causes lockdown at St. Joan of Arc, threat unfounded