Last week, several school districts had an incident of swatting. In Jeffco, our Interim Executive Director of School Safety sent out the following letter to staff and families. This is an excellent example of communication to a community and we wanted to share it with you both for education purposes and to encourage you to speak to your children about this. We are grateful that our Gold Standard Safety Team takes these issues seriously and want to encourage everyone that if you #SeeSomething or #HearSomething, #SaySomething!
September 23, 2022
Dear Jeffco Public Schools Staff and Families,
Safety is the top priority in Jeffco Public Schools. In our continuing effort to keep you updated regarding safety situations which may impact our schools – we want to let you know about a series of bogus threats that have happened at multiple Colorado school districts this week. Law enforcement officials do not yet know who is responsible for these threats.
While none have yet happened this week in Jeffco Public Schools, unfortunately, law enforcement is confirming at least three cases of swatting at schools in Denver, Colorado Springs and Alamosa.
Swatting is when someone makes a prank call to police claiming an emergency and provides a real address for officers to respond to.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released this statement:
“The FBI is aware of numerous swatting incidents wherein a report of an active shooter at a school is made. The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk and drains law enforcement resources.
Most swatting cases are handled by local and state law enforcement agencies. The FBI often provides resources and guidance in these investigations and can recommend cases for federal prosecution.
FBI Denver is working with local law enforcement on some of these swatting incidents involving schools in our region.”
– FBI Denver Field Office
What we do know is that all of these situations, whether real or false, are distressing and strip away the sense of security in our schools and communities.
It is important that we continue to take threats seriously – continuing to report concerning information with school administrators or law enforcement and doing everything we can to prevent false reports. Please take some time to remind your student that any potential safety concerns should be reported to you and to the school, no matter how insignificant they believe it might be. Students may also call the Safe2Tell program to report safety concerns anonymously at 877-542-7233, or report online at https://safe2tell.org/.
We are in this together, Jeffco.
In partnership,
Jeff Pierson
Interim Executive Director, Department of School Safety
