Schools targeted in 'swatting' threats

DUNWOODY, Ga. - It’s called swatting and it’s been happening to multiple Dunwoody schools most of the week.

Dunwoody police say someone has made threats via social media or phone calls to quote "shoot up" Dunwoody Schools three times this week.

Each time the schools have been placed on lockdown as police respond to the threat.

At Dunwoody High School students told FOX 5 News about repeated lockdowns for the last three days.

“Yeah, three days in a row. We were on lockdown, the whole school, if you had to go to the bathroom if you had an emergency, everything was shut down, everything,” said Eloneeka Swimoh.

Dunwoody Police told FOX 5 News Dunwoody High School, Vanderlyn Elementary, Austin Elementary, and Kingsley Elementary, were all targets of Swatting, either by social media or phone calls.

“These are all Swatting type incidents where someone is trying to make a prank call or a prank threat trying to elicit a response from the police, obviously which is what has happened.,” said Sgt. Robert Parsons on a Facebook video.

Sgt. Parsons took to Facebook to help calm the community nerves as squad cars responded to the schools.

He said Dunwoody is not alone in these international Swatting scenarios.

“The calls that have been made to Dunwoody has not been unique to Dunwoody, the same calls have been made to California, Florida places in Canada,” said Sgt. Parsons.

The DeKalb County School District says similar emails went out to parents at the various schools, saying “Our staff and students are to be commended for acting in the manner which they have been trained. Please be assured that the safety and security of our school is our major priority.”

For Rachael Gray, who lives across the street from Vanderlyn Elementary where her son will attend next year, the Swatting scenario is a disturbing set of circumstances.

“For the sake of my children and everyone else’s children who are at these schools it’s not funny and it’s not a joke so please stop what you are doing,” said Gray.

Dunwoody Police told FOX 5 News they are working with the FBI to track down who is responsible for the Swatting messages.

The spokesperson for the school district said she hopes the Swatting will ease off since the weekend arrived followed by the week-long Thanksgiving Day Holiday break.