The True Cost Of School Shooting Hoaxes In California

CALIFORNIA — California High School. Kehillah Jewish High School. El Camino Real Charter High School. All three schools were among more than a dozen across the Golden State targeted with false claims of a bombing or shooting in the last month.

Schools in at least five California districts were locked down because of false reports of an active shooter on a Tuesday in early February, according to Education Week. This phenomenon, known as "swatting," appears to be increasing in frequency in California and across the country. It's a trend that costs taxpayers, sows terror in classrooms and ties up law enforcement resources.

According to Education Week, a wave of swatting calls hit dozens of schools in at least six states during September, alone. The apparent spread of swatting has affected 40 states, Sky News reported and is under investigation by the FBI.

Ashley Yanet Castillo, 18, was in first period at Hollywood High School on Sept. 13, 2022, when Los Angeles police entered the school before students even knew they were under lockdown, she recalls. Castillo and her peers saw an alert on the Citizen app of six shots fired at the school, but three minutes passed before they heard the principal nervously announce the lockdown, said Castillo.

"There were people crying, people sobbing, people trying to call their parents," Castillo said. "It was just chaos."

Parents rushed to the school, while some students hopped the fence to escape, she recalled.

"Nobody wanted to be there anymore after that," she said. "It was just paranoia, anxiety, things like that for the rest of the day and the days following."

As a founding member of the school's Students Demand Action group, Castillo powered through her tears to share information about the situation on the group's social media account.

"I could not contain my emotions," she said. "I was starting to have a panic attack, but, in that moment, I felt like I wasn't allowed to."

During the roughly two-hour lockdown, students suffered heart palpitations and low blood pressure, Castillo recounted. They received inconsistent messaging from teachers and other authority figures about procedures and what to expect, she added.

The Hollywood incident is one of about 13 swattings to affect the Los Angeles Unified School District since Aug. 15, according to Lt. Nina Buranasombati of the Los Angeles School Police Department. The problem has been getting worse.

"It has definitely increased," she said.

In addition to the emotional and psychological trauma that swatting incidents can cause for students, each swatting also costs upward of $10,000 in emergency response resources, according to Buranasombati.

"When we arrive, sometimes the school has no idea why we're there because it's business as usual for them, and they're quite surprised," she said. "Our main goal is to make sure everyone at the school is safe."

During the September swatting incident at Hollywood High School, the Los Angeles Police Department received a report of an active shooter with six victims down, she said.

The LAPD and LA school police department conducted a systematic search of the campus but found no sign of a shooter, according to Buranasombati.

Though students and their families may want more information from the police about their process, complete transparency isn't always possible, Buranasombati said.

"Sharing these tactics with the public could potentially compromise officer safety by providing valuable information to individuals who may seek to harm law enforcement or the public," Buranasombati said in an email. "Police tactics are often the result of extensive training and preparation, and sharing these tactics with the public could potentially undermine the effectiveness of this training by giving individuals the opportunity to prepare for law enforcement responses."

Some California communities, including Malibu, Beverly Hills and Lathrop, have either considered or moved forward with hiring private security to protect local schools. Others, including the Los Angeles district, have scaled back on armed school officers in recent years.

It does not appear that there is a pattern to the increasing swattings, according to Buranasombati, although they are also not an entirely new phenomenon. Four Los Angeles County high schools experienced threats found not to be credible one Monday in late 2021. Six years before that, in 2015, a threat to Los Angeles Board of Education members resulted in the closure of schools districtwide.

"I can only guess why some of these incidents are happening," Buranasombati said of the recent swattings, characterizing them as instances of attention-seeking behavior.

The swatters typically use spoofing apps to disguise their identity, according to Buranasombati.

"We are adamantly investigating these incidents," she said. "Although we might not find the identity of the person immediately, we eventually do."

More than 80 swatting reports across the country earlier in the school year were traced to Ethiopia, according to Education Week, citing NPR and Wired magazine. Authorities were also investigating a 15-year-old Florida boy, a 20-year-old man from North Carolina, and, in one case, an 11-year-old girl from Ohio, in connection with various swatting incidents, Education Week reported.

While swatting calls may take only a few minutes or even seconds to make, their repercussions can last for months.

Castillo is easily startled by loud noises and has switched schools, citing friction with Hollywood High over days missed due to gun violence prevention advocacy work. She was also held at gunpoint in her south Los Angeles neighborhood a few months after the swatting, just seconds from her home, she said.

Castillo submitted a report on the Hollywood swatting to the school district and is focused on improving campus safety planning at either the state or district level.

"It was just so much chaos that could have been solved," she said.