Our view: Healing, learning needed from Licking County shooting hoax
"They're running from the school. There's shooting going on, and kids are scattering everywhere."
The 911 call made in reaction to reports of an active shooter at Licking Valley schools is a perfect example of the fear, disbelief and misinformation that spread throughout our community on Sept. 23.
Fortunately, the emergency turned out to be a hoax, one apparently conducted by the same person to multiple schools across Ohio.
But while the call was fake, the stress and trauma of the day for those involved was real.
"'The call' may have been a hoax, but that's the only thing that was fake," Licking Valley Superintendent Scott Beery told Advocate reporter Michaela Sumner. "Our students, our staff, our parents, our community, law enforcement, everybody did exactly as they were trained to do. But that comes at a cost. It was real."
The trauma was real for the Licking Valley students, but also for the staff, parents and school community at large. We are glad that Valley increased counseling services for students this past week, and encourage them to keep making this a priority as kids and adults process what happened. While parents must be strong for their children, part of that includes knowing when they may need their own help to handle the stress of such a frightening few hours.
Adding to the confusion of the day was a Licking Valley parent showing up to the school armed with a gun after hearing reports of the alleged active shooter. While we are sympathetic to this reaction, especially given the police failures in the Uvalde, Texas shooting response, it could have ended in tragedy. Fortunately, the man complied with police and no harm was done.
We are hopeful that the response from law enforcement across Licking County shows how seriously our police take such threats, and there is not a need for armed parents to assist. It certainly appears that different police departments worked well together and made sure to thoroughly investigate the school before determining it was a hoax.
Of course, we would prefer not to have to deal with fake 911 calls - known as swatting calls - at all. The difficulty is effectively stopping them. Rep. Kevin Miller, R-Franklin Township, is co-sponsoring a bill to make placing such calls a felony offense. This seems a reasonable step, but we are unsure how much real effect it will have in deterring such calls.
Unfortunately with today's technology, such calls can just as easily be made from Europe as from Newark. With hindsight it may be easy to say that the call was obviously fake, but determining that in real time is far more complicated. The dispatcher did good work in asking questions of the caller, but we certainly don't want law enforcement not to respond to a real disaster simply because the last call was fake.
The best we can do is learn from the incident. We should make sure communication plans are set up to inform students, staff and parents of what is going on and what they can do. We should ensure disaster response plans are up to date, and that all relevant people are keyed into what they say on a regular basis. Providing adequate money for disaster training also must be a priority, and residents must ensure they are getting their information from reliable sources and not basing their actions on social media gossip.
The overwhelming response to what turned out to be a terrible hoax shows how much this community cares. As the people who went through it deal with their own trauma, let's ensure that caring continues.
Advocate Editorial Board
Jim Bidigare
Olivia Biggs
Tim Huffman
Paddy Kutz
Benjamin Lanka
Jody Richter
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Our view: Healing, learning needed from Licking County shooting hoax
