Around 10:30 a.m. on September 24, Heritage High School received an anonymous phone call threatening that there was a bomb in the school.
“This has happened across the country over the last two years. We refer to them as swatting calls, which are made to threaten schools,” Ms. Stacey Riendeau says.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, swatting is the malicious act of making a hoax call or report to emergency services to falsely claim that a violent, high-risk crisis is occurring at an unsuspecting victim’s location. The goal is to deceive law enforcement into sending a heavily armed tactical response, such as a SWAT team or bomb squad, to harass, intimidate, or retaliate against the target.
Officer Mallory Atkinson, the school resource officer, stayed on the phone with the anonymous caller for about 30 minutes before the caller hung up. Shortly after the threat was made, the Littleton Police Department, a chief officer from Arapahoe County, and bomb-detection dogs arrived at the school within two minutes.
“Even though our SRO believed it was not a legitimate call, we still take every threat seriously and investigate it to make sure our students are safe,”Riendeau says.
The anonymous caller remains under investigation, and the case has been handed over to the Littleton Police Department.
“I don’t know what information they will be able to obtain or what they will be able to do, but they will make sure to do everything they can,” Ms. Atkinson says. “We are going to take all of these threats seriously and make sure that you are safe at school. We will do everything we can, and we appreciate everyone’s cooperation.”