LANSING — Law enforcement and emergency management officials say despite false reports claiming violence at more than a half a dozen schools across the state on Tuesday, widespread hoaxes alleging school violence are rare.
Callers reported violence at schools in Okemos, Portage, Saginaw, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit and Muskegon among others on Tuesday morning, but officials said none of the claims proved to be true.
After a caller reported an active shooter at Okemos High School just after 9 a.m., six police agencies, the FBI and ATF and emergency management personnel responded to the school, evacuated it and searched the building. They found no evidence of violence and school officials canceled classes for the remainder of the day and Wednesday.
"Fortunately, this was a false call that does not make it any less serious. This put a lot of fear and impact into students, community members and faculty," Meridian Township Police Chief Ken Plaga said. "It’s a terrible thing."
The false reports, known as "swatting," usually involve making a hoax call to law enforcement to purposefully cause a heavy police or SWAT team response at a given location.
It's rare to see false calls regarding multiple school districts in a given day though, Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez said.
"I don't believe we've had an incident like this within the last year of something where so many schools are being affected," he said. "Normally it'll be one school, an isolated incident."...
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