Students at Two Pittsburgh Catholic Schools Placed on Locked Down After Swatting Reports of Active Shooter

100 Percent Fed Up reports- At approximately 11 am ET, Pittsburgh Police issued an alert to students and parents of Central and Oakland Catholic Schools to gather at the Oakland Quad Cathedral of Learning at the school, as police were investigating reports of an “actor” (active?) shooter.

The active shooting threats were, in fact, hoaxes that are believed to have been “computer generated swatting calls.

Alyssa Raymond of local WPXI confirmed that the call to 911 to repost an active shooter at Central Catholic School was, indeed, a hoax.

CONFIRMED HOAX! Everyone at Central Catholic is safe. pic.twitter.com/pigguyOGGn

— Alyssa Raymond (@AlyssaRaymond) March 29, 2023

There were a total of 4 western PA schools that received the hoax shooter calls: Hopewell, Chalfont, Central Catholic, and Oakland Catholic.

According to Times Online – Hopewell and New Castle high schools were among many Pennsylvania schools targeted by fake active shooter “swatting” calls Wednesday morning.

Hopewell placed all staff and students on lockdown around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday as law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter at the scene. Police were seen inside and outside the school. Those reports were found to be false, with multiple other Pennsylvania schools reporting similar unfounded threats.

New Castle City Police Department received a call from a “male threatening to shoot up New Castle High School” around the same time Hopewell responded to the threats, but upon further investigation, found many other schools received fake threats involving active shooters or potential bombs. New Castle High was immediately put on lockdown following the threats, with police officers clearing the school within minutes, officers said.

State police tell @KDKA four schools so far in our area have gotten hoax active shooter calls. Police tell us this is a hoax. So far it’s impacted these 4 schools:

Hopewell
Chalfont
Central Catholic
Oakland Catholic pic.twitter.com/pvX5upWu6p

— MEGHAN SCHILLER (@MeghanKDKA) March 29, 2023

Swatting is where calls go out to multiple locations saying that there is an active shooter.

Police and first responders immediately arrived on the scene to address an active shooter—but it was all a hoax. In addition to horrifying students and staff at four schools, an untold amount of taxpayer funds were used to support the rescue efforts at the affected schools.

Officers in full tactical gears. Active shooter situation right now Central Catholic High School, Oakland Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/xEftWMaTUr

— Pittsburgh For Progress🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@Pitt4Progress) March 29, 2023

According to the Post-Gazette – The scare came as schools elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in other states were rocked by similar false reports. Numerous high schools in eastern Pennsylvania received such calls, Lehigh Valley Live reported. Such calls also hit dozens of schools in Massachusetts, according to Boston.com.

Pennsylvania State Police confirmed they were investigating “a series of phone calls made to 911 centers about schools across the Commonwealth involving threats of an active shooter situation or bomb threat.”

State police said the calls were made to schools in several different counties, and all had similar content.

These hoax calls into schools come only two days after the horrific slaughter of three 9-year-old children and three staff members at the Covenant Christian elementary school in Nashville, TN, at the hands of a 28-year-old transgender and former student of the Covenant School who left a manifesto behind. The contents of the manifesto have not yet been released.