(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The rash of calls follows similar trends in other parts of the country that began this week.

“I want to say how sad I am that there are individuals in this world that would report a hoax like this on our high school students, the staff, our police officers, our fire officers — how sad I am that our country has gotten to this point where this kind of thing is OK,” said Ogden chief administrative officer Mark Johnson, as he addressed one of the calls made to Ogden High School. “It’s not.”

The chaos all unfolded around the same time, as police agencies across the state began responding to similar reports of school violence Wednesday morning. Schools that were in session at the time were locked down.

Officers and other emergency responders descended on Ogden High School shortly after 9:30, when police dispatchers received a report of “an active shooter” at the school, according to Ogden Police Capt. Tim Scott.

“That caller reported that there were shots fired and several students were down and injured by gunfire,” he explained.

An officer trained in active shooter responses was already at the school and helped place the school on lockdown right away while police responded to the report, as part of the city’s and district’s precautionary safety protocols.

Scott said the initial responders started “hunting” for a potential shooter with long guns. Police only learned that the call was “a hoax” while in the middle of clearing out the school.

Similar incidents popped up elsewhere in the state as this was happening. Salt Lake police officials said they also received a call of a possible active shooter at West High School on Wednesday. They called the report “unfounded,” noting that Salt Lake City School District schools are on spring break this week, though a tactical search of the building was conducted just in case. …

Utah isn’t alone in dealing with the problem. The threats began not long after three adults and three children were killed at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday.

KTVI in St. Louis reported that multiple schools in Missouri received prank calls on Monday. Similar threats were reported across Ohio on Tuesday, according to the Dayton Daily News. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette added that a series of phony reports were also made across Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning before the incidents in Utah.

While police investigate the claims, both Ogden city and school district officials said they will dissect the incident so they can make adjustments to response time in case the next report isn’t a prank. However, they hope that will never happen.

– Carter Williams, KSL.com in Active Shooter Threat Hoax Came to Utah Schools From Outside the US, Police Say

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54 COMMENTS

  1. The grade school I went to in New York City was a tough place. They checked everyone for guns. If you did not have one, they would lend one to you.

  2. Well, the article never mentions the foreign country again after the headline. Any reason to think the calls came from somewhere else? Not local? Transgender vengeance?

    • Last time this mass hoax crap happened (under Preident Trump) with bomb threats to Jewish community centers/synagogues across the USA the calls came from an Israeli/American “dual citizen” Jewish teenager in Israel, the time before that the perp was a black BLM-er and “journalist” (propagandist) and Democratic Party “activist” (agitator), funny how these things happen.

    • Noticed that as well so I went to the linked article. In one place it mentions that a Utah official suspects the calls came from out of state due to the fact that the caller didn’t realize Utah schools were on Spring Break but, no mention of outside the U.S.

    • It probably wasn’t Nigeria; that would risk endangering their peaceful practice of promising to give people lots of money.

  3. Back in the 1970s, bomb threats were popular. I recall two evacuations of my high school due to bomb threats.

    Harden the schools. Train and arm teachers. Promote and facilitate home-schooling. Fire the teachers union. Unravel the US Department of Education. Recite the pledge of Allegiance every day in every school. Obliterate the teaching of CRT, trahnney dances, and wokey-wokey in the schools. Drive science, math, tech skills, history, and literacy. Re-establish learning standards. Frog- march the groomers.

    I have a dream.

    • We had ’em too at my HS in ILL annoy. Along with race riot’s. This BS is nothing new except the gunz. A kid got stabbed during a melee. No one messed with me as I was a large teenage weightlifter who got along with everyone🙄

    • Should anyone call and threaten this household my response would be to call the police and inform them a perp’s life is fixing to be in grave danger. If schools kicked Gun Control democRats out of the way and prepared for war perps would think twice about calling or coming by. Downside on secure schools is the perp’s will find soft targets elsewhere.

    • My high school had three bomb threats during my time there. Once they evacuated us all to the grandstands at the football field since the threat had specified the bomb was in the main building. They wanted us in the gymnasium since the weather wasn’t exactly friendly that day; I remember wind but don’t recall if it was cold or wet. But since the gym could be counted as part of the main building they put us outside and the police scoured the gym — every locker, every inch of the bleachers… they even unrolled the wrestling mats to check inside! The only thing that was found was a duffel bag with a can of something flammable (I don’t remember what), no fuse or anything, so they moved us to the gym while the police searched the rest of the school just in case there was a real bomb somewhere. I don’t think they ever caught the guy.

      The second time I don’t know details because I was on the cross-country team and we’d left for a meet something like twenty minutes before the threat was called in; we only learned about it the next day. The call had said there were three bombs set to go off close together and no place was safe, so the decision was made to send everyone home — we were kind of disappointed we’d missed the excitement. The police searched every nook and cranny of the building — no bomb. They weren’t done before a second call came claiming it was a hoax, that he’d just wanted to see the police get some action — but they finished searching anyway. I don’t think they ever had a clue who it was.

      The third time they put us all in the big auditorium: the threat came with a statement that the person wanted us all to hear and said the auditorium was safe because he wanted everyone to go there — and to stay there “or else”. I don’t remember a thing about the statement except thinking I could have written better in sixth grade; what I remember is that the audio-visual team did a dash to their storeroom and grabbed a bunch of movie reels and after the statement was read and we’d sat in silence for ten or fifteen minutes the head AV student read off the names of the movies they’d grabbed and had people holler if they’d want to see it. The movie was one about the war in the Pacific in WWII, only about forty minutes long, and then they pulled the stunt of running the whole thing backwards, which got everyone laughing and helped ease the stress. As for a bomb, all that was found was a box with a ticking timer, labeled “BOMB”; the police bomb people took it out to the middle of the football field to deal with it. Apparently it was a bomb, but was barely powerful enough to blow up a restroom toilet stall. That guy they caught.
      There was another bomb threat while I was still in eighth grade but my brother was in high school; all I remember about that is that it turned out to be a hoax — and within a week they actually found the guy who made the call.

  6. But what does the guy mean when he says “how sad I am that our country has gotten to this point where this kind of thing is OK,”.

    • The one good thing about it…is it gives the teams some actual unplanned dry runs…one time we had a volunteer fireman setting fires, so he could put them out…hmmmm
      He slipped up and told his soon to be Ex girlfriend…

  7. Hoax calls about school shootings is the new ‘swatting’. We had a few of those in the past, wasn’t from a foreign country though. One of the hoax callers was ‘outraged’ when police arrived at their home, it was one of our local anti-gun idiots.

    • Around the country since September 2022 to present there have been more than 200 of these types of hoax calls.

      Mostly they use an app for those many free or low-cost Internet based calling platforms, TextNow use is popular. These use ‘throw away’ temporary phone numbers that can be used to makes calls or send text messages. Some of these apps don’t even require a true verified email address to sign up with them.

      • The fact that men with guns who are supposed to be on the right side of this thing are listening to this while posing deadly force is in itself embarrassing. We have an app for that. But then no way to verify. It’s ripe for hacking and misuse. Swatting should never be a thing. Not because it’s wrong but becuse the people with the guns are taking orders from what amounts to ‘just anyone…who knows who’. This in effect turns SWAT teams and cops into mercenaries.

    • One guy they caught who’d made a hoax call to our high school about a bomb threat got the privilege of paying the cost of the whole police response besides having the book thrown at him. That was something to be outraged about!

  8. The USA is at war. And most Americans are clueless about it. If you could trust the CIA??? They should track these people down making these calls and kill them.

    • Nobody can convince anyone that the war is here and raging already…Burning of chicken laying houses, killing of massive amounts of lifestocks, derailing of trains, explosions of food and CHOCOLATE factories (now people are dying), banks deep sixing peoples money and suspending withdrawals, weaponized law enforcement and violent liberal/radical protest everywhere you turn…FALES FLAGS AGAINST THE 2ND AMENDMENT AT LEAST MONTHLY….The communist revolution playbook is in full swing….WAKE UP FOLKS!!…

      • Most people (including many here on TTAG) are not going to believe that until Congress makes a formal declaration. Something that might never happen. They called Vietnam a war but Korea was a police action. Meanwhile, huge portions of American resources are being handed over to our enemies and directly takin from from us.

        Too many people will go with what government says. That’s why so many honestly think Jan6 was an insurrection. It’s what Pelosi said it was. Even though that is a complete lie.

      • Ernst Rohm and Adolf Hitler both hated Jews, both were killers, and both disagreed on what fascism should look like in Germany. Their disagreements were so strong that Hitler had Rohm killed.

        In Russia, Stalin Lenin and Trotsky, all three agreed on making Russia a communist Utopia. But they disagreed on the details. And they began killing each other off. With Stalin surviving to be the leader.
        And in the United States we have communists, socialists, progressives, and fascists, who all agree that the citizens should be disarmed.

        But they all disagree on the details, about how their utopian agenda should be achieved for America. However these leaders who want this Utopia, have yet to start killing each other off, the way they did in Germany and Russia.

        But give them time. I fully expect it will start happening.
        I don’t see any difference between these leaders and what they accomplished or they are trying to accomplish in their given countries.

        They all want the citizens disarmed. And they all have designs on some kind of War making.

      • Ernst Rohm and Adolf Hitler both hated Jews, both were killers, and both disagreed on what fascism should look like in Germany. Their disagreements were so strong that Hitler had Rohm killed.

        In Russia, Stalin Lenin and Trotsky, all three agreed on making Russia a c0mmunist Utopia. But they disagreed on the details. And they began killing each other off. With Stalin surviving to be the leader.

        And in the United States we have c0mmunists, s0ci@lists, pr0gressives, and f@scists, who all agree that the citizens should be disarmed.
        But they all disagree on the details, about how their utopian agenda should be achieved for America.
        However these leaders who want this Utopia, have yet to start killing each other off, the way they did in Germany and Russia.

        But give them time. I fully expect it will start happening.

        I don’t see any difference between these leaders and what they accomplished or they are trying to accomplish in their given countries.

        • They usually start their factional dispute after the “revolution”, but sometimes during the war, such as the Spanish Civil War.

          I can see antifa and blm coming to blows. And antifa will consume the smaller factions first, such as the vegans and rainbow coalition, with the anarchists and s0cialists being the last two. Odds on the latter as they will be better organized.

    • The real problem is “they” can track this stuff but no one is going to lift a finger to find out who. That wouldn’t help the narrative.

  9. The state of civilization we are in now was predicted long ago by Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 1651. It has not reached it’s peak yet, but it will within a few years. Prepare thyself.

    *************************************************************

    “Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War; and such a war as is of every man against every man. In such condition there is no place for Industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual Fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

    • All a part of the communist revolution playbook the G. Edward Griffin detailed in his black and white video in 1969…A MUST SEE FOR ALL WHO CARE…

    • Ethiopia or the U.K. are possible culprits. Those are where the ones since Sept 2022 have come from, most from Ethiopia.

    • Wow, didn’t think anyone would actually fall for that bs shoe thing. Hey, I’ve got this bridge in Brooklyn I need to sell. Want it? I’ll let it go for a pallet of m855…

      • Didn’t think a blind govt mule would ever watch the video either that proves it…go back to sleep with the sheep…

    • Hoax Nashville video? Haven’t heard that one yet. There’s plenty of real conspiracies out there without inventing more.

      • Watch the video… no students in the classroom locked down… nobodies in the hallways… most all the lights were off…. One of the officers would’ve accidentally shot one of his own in the back ( if he wasn’t shooting blanks, that is)….. the shooter changed shoes at some point…. so many clues in those videos… such an unwillingness for people to pay attention to details…

  12. The telephone calls may have originated from some foreigh country, but the pranks did not. This originated from here in the US.

    Our telphine system is bogus, and needs overhauled. I get sales calls, I know from INdia based on the accent (which I duplicate tand throw right back t them making them mad, which is fine). Often my caller ID will show a number from my own sate. I cal that one back and get “this number is not inn ervice”. Funny, it was thirty secinds go.
    Unused trunk lines are coopted by foreigners and used to harrass us. The originating companies are here in the US. This all needs to be traceable. For any given liine the owner/user mustbe identifiable.

    • Caller IDs can be faked. I often mess with them by speaking French to make them think their phone system is faulty. And then the various scams for Amazon Prime, Australian Taxation Office, NBN, and much more.

      One of the ATO scams threatened arrest and prosecution. At first I said I would send their people back parcel post, small packet rate, but now I ask “Who am I?” Then I hear “click”.

      • My French isn’t that good anymore. Been around too many Cajuns down here. So I use German or Gaelic. Really messes with the telemarketers and cold call sales people.

  13. You do realize that with a VPN you can pick your country. Some allow you to go through two countries.

    BTW, this is Domestic Terrorism, since the purpose of the shooters and the fakes is to cause fear.

    • You might not realize it but using a VPN does not change the IP address that your ISP gives you. It might affect what others see but not the main (most important) one. If you lose your ISP’s IP then you are offline.

      • Sure, but the point is only to make it impractical. Unless they’re chasing a major terrorist or a Trump supporter they won’t waste the resources needed to subpoena ISP records in all the countries between here and there.

        You’re right that it’s always *technically possible* to trace the entire route though. It’s just not possible to do it fast enough to catch them in the act.

        • Unless your downloading music or files for 3D printed gun frames and then they will come after you.

  15. And put twenty or so baseball bats in every room. You start throwing them and let the rest beat the living shit out of the perps.

  16. Given the makeup of some eighth and ninth grade classes I’ve taught, I wouldn’t want “twenty or so baseball bats in every room” unless they were securely locked. That was three decades ago, and from what I’ve heard teachers saying the last few years it’s only gotten worse.

    Now, if we had a system like the old British boarding schools where kids learn actual discipline and s=especially self-discipline, my view would be different because they strove to impart the understanding that nit isn’t how tough you are that makes you a man, it’s how well you control yourself and comport yourself like a civilized being — including knowing when to be peaceful and when to unleash your inner barbarian.

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