Medford School officials released the following information regarding the shooting hoaxes the district received this morning. These happened around the same time as the Ashland High School shooting hoax.
We are aware of some non-legitimate threats at schools across Southern Oregon today. Police have confirmed there is no current threat.
But we do want to make you aware of this nationwide trend, called ‘swatting.’ Swatting is a term used to describe hoax reports made intentionally to schools and school districts sending them into lockdowns on unfounded or non-legitimate threats. Many of these calls are coming from out of country.
Schools nationwide and in our region are seeing an uptick of these types of calls. Just this morning, a swatting call was made from the same phone number to two other local school districts and South Medford.
When we received this call, our SROs and Medford Police worked quickly to make sure we had coverage in our buildings. Because of our partnership with Medford Police, we were able to swiftly determine this was a hoax call and the school day was able to continue as normal.
These types of swatting hoaxes can be disruptive and traumatic. We wanted to make you aware so you can discuss this with your children, as you see fit.
It is important to note, we continue to take all threats seriously and move urgently to take appropriate action based on the information we have.
If you believe there is a legitimate threat, we urge you to report it using Safe Oregon’s Tip Line or to a trusted adult at the school.
Your child’s safety is our top and ongoing priority and the central purpose of all of our emergency procedures.
Again, there have been no confirmed shootings at any metro schools today, nor are there any outstanding threats at this time.
Source: MSD549C
