Investigations were ongoing as of Monday afternoon after a series of “swatting” incidents at several schools around Massachusetts, according to police.
Police received threatening calls, with officers responding to Amesbury High School around 12 p.m. Investigators soon learned the calls were hoaxes.
Heavily armed officers were seen wrapped around Amesbury High School after police said they received a call reporting a man armed with a gun. The school was immediately placed in lockdown while police mounted a massive response to sweep both inside and outside the school.
Police would soon find out other schools around the state and across the country had received similar threats, including schools in Chelmsford, East Boston and Charlestown. Those schools were briefly placed in safe mode on Monday.
Amesbury Public Schools superintendent Elizabeth McAndrews said hearing about this incident Monday was “awful.”
“[It’s] one of the things that makes this job really scary,” she told 7NEWS.
Students described their own experiences with lockdown procedures.
“You just hope for the best and you just pray,” one parent said, describing her reaction to the news.
“Swatting calls like the one we received today use a tremendous amount of police and emergency resources, diverting those resources away from other potential emergencies,” Amesbury Police Chief Craig Bailey said in a statement Monday.
Bailey delivered a message to those behind these incidents in a separate conversation with 7NEWS — “please stop.”
“What purpose does it serve?” he said.
Police said all the recent threatening calls remained under investigation as of Monday afternoon.
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