Salem Schools To Learn From 'Swatting' Hoax Communication Issue

SALEM, MA — Salem High School and the Horace Mann School were among the latest schools in the state to receive what police called a "hoax swatting call" on Wednesday.

Both schools were placed in lockdown early Wednesday afternoon in response to the threat. Police said that as of about 1:30 p.m., they had secured the buildings and "can assure all that this call was a hoax."

Superintendent Steve Zrike said that while they were "pretty sure early on" it was a hoax based on the pattern of calls to other districts in recent days, it was protocol to follow all lockdown safety procedures and for the police to respond with a large presence to clear the schools of a dangerous threat.

"It's a terrible thing because it does raise anxiety and fear among people from what we are seeing across the country with violent crime and violence in schools," Zrike said. "We have to do everything we can for the safety of our staff and students."

Zrike said that while the first priority was ensuring safety, a second priority of alerting families of the situation fell through on Wednesday when an intended text message to the school community never went through because of a system error.

He said that while "we will never be faster than a cell phone student communication with their parents" the district and police will discuss what went right and wrong on Wednesday to better respond to a future emergency situation.

"Sadly, we live in a world where we have to worry about these things," he said. "But we want to get better about how we communicate with you. We are prepared for these emergencies.

"This was not a real incident but it is still something we can learn from."

Several schools across Massachusetts received threatening phone calls Monday and Tuesday, all of which have since been determined to be hoaxes.

Tuesday saw suspected swatting calls to schools in Duxbury and Concord, while similar calls were made to high schools in Amesbury, Charlestown, East Boston, Fitchburg, Ipswich, North Attleboro, Westfield, and Chelmsford and to a Cape Cod elementary school.

The phrase "swatting" entered the dictionary in 2015 and has been recognized as a criminal phenomenon by the FBI since at least 2008.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)