About 40 school districts in Indiana canceled in-person classes Friday after receiving emails threatening the use of explosives on several campuses.
No suspicious or explosive devices were found in any Indiana schools, according to a news release from the Indiana State Police. The investigation into the threat’s origin is ongoing, police said. Friday’s threats to Indiana schools were just the latest in an ongoing trend of non-credible threats towards schools that’s becoming more common across the country, said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based national consulting firm. this week multiple school districts in Illinois saw similar threats.
“And this has been going on almost weekly since at least the beginning of the school year in August,” Trump said. “We’ve seen multiple school districts receiving multiple threats across multiple states all within the same day.”
The threats are what security officials call “swatting,” when an unidentified caller sends in false threats to schools with the aim of getting authorities or SWAT teams to respond to the scene, Trump said.
“The threat makers get a sense of power and a thrill of seeing that massive response to law enforcement and school disruption,” Trump said.
Noblesville was among the first to alert the public via its Twitter account just before 6:45 am noting that “we received a bomb threat that was sent to approx 40 districts in Indiana.”
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The threat was sent via email and Homeland Security is investigating, according to information put out by various school districts. The FBI is also working with state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate, according to an agency spokesperson.
State troopers will work with their local districts to offer support and assistance, ISP said.
None of the biggest school districts in central Indiana — including Indianapolis Public Schools, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, Perry and Wayne Township Schools or Carmel Clay Schools — received threats.
In a message to families and staff from Hamilton Southeastern Schools, the school district authorities stated do not believe the threats to be credible.
The school district is not among those threatened but stated the Fishers Police Department would increase the presence of officers in and around schools. Classes were held as usual at Hamilton Southeastern Schools Friday.
The Indiana Department of Education referred IndyStar to the Indiana State police statement.
“The safety of our children will always be a top priority,” Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said in a release. “The Indiana State Police will continue to offer any and all resources we have to schools to ensure safety for our students.”Initially the Indianapolis Public Schools district’s spokesperson said they did not accept any bomb threats and their schools followed a regular in-person schedule. As Friday progressed, however, two IPS schools had to evacuate.
Super School 19, an IPS innovation school on the near southeast side of Indianapolis, evacuated its building after receiving a threat midday and sent students home for the rest of the day although the police determined there to be no threat to the school, said Marc Ransford, IPS media relations coordinator.
James A. Garfield School 31 also evacuated on Friday due to a non-credible threat but students and staff later returned to the building, Ransford said.
These Indiana schools have eLearning Friday, April 14:
These Indiana schools are closed Friday, April 14:
The following school districts have reported they did not receive a threat:
This article will update.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana schools closing after bomb threats: What we know
