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Lockdown Lifted After Threat at Bellefonte Area High School Found Not Credible

Bellefonte Area High School was locked down for about an hour on Wednesday morning after a shooting threat that police ultimately determined to be not credible.

The nearby middle school and district elementary schools also were placed on lockdown “out of an abundance of caution,” after the threat against the high school was received at about 9:30 a.m., Bellefonte Area Superintendent Tammie Burnaford said.

The high school building was cleared by about 10:30 a.m. and students were evacuated to Rogers Stadium, where they were dismissed for the day and reunited with families who gathered near the school amid multiple email updates on the situation from principal Michael Feddison and the appearance of a massive police response.

Bellefonte was one of a number of schools around the state to receive similar threats, including Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley. State police said in a news release that they are investigating a series of phone calls made to 9-1-1 centers about several schools in different counties involving threats of an active shooter situation or bomb threat. All of the claims in those calls were found to be false and each school was cleared by law enforcement, police said.

State police Troop G wrote on Twitter that each call was being treated with standard protocols but that “the calls are believed to be computer generated swatting calls,” later adding that the incidents “have been fully investigated” and there was no known threat.

In an update to district families later later in the day, Burnaford wrote that at least 25 school districts in Pennsylvania received swatting calls, which are false reports designed to elicit an emergency response.

The apparent widespread hoax happened two days after the latest school shooting in the United States in which three students, three staff members and the shooter were killed at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee.

State College Area School District did not receive a threat, but in response to the Bellefonte threat had an increased police presence and held recess and physical education classes indoors, Superintendent Curtis Johnson wrote in an email to district families. He added that school counselors were made available to students.

Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver said the threat was called into the borough police station.

“The call came into our station and it was a male who said that there were several students in a bathroom that were shot,” Weaver said. “At that point the call was forwarded to the 9-1-1 center and it was dispatched like any other emergency call would be dispatched.”

Weaver was nearby and along with school resource officers was first on the scene. Within minutes an estimated 70 officers from Bellefonte, State College, Penn State, Patton Township and Spring Township police departments, the Centre County Sheriff’s Office and state police at Rockview responded, as well as the district attorney’s office detective and Centre County Probation officers. Officers from the state attorney general’s office, who happened to be in the county to serve a warrant, also responded to assist.

“They’re not from this area. They know nobody here,” Weaver said. “They have a gun and a badge and a vest and they showed up and they went in to assist us in any way possible. I thought that was very impressive. It shows you just how much we care about our schools in law enforcement.”

Officers then went through the process of determining if there was a threat and clearing rooms one by one. Weaver praised students and staff for following lockdown protocols.

“I was very impressed with how the school staff on ground level, the teachers and administrative staff, they all did excellent jobs,” he said. “I did not see one student when we were doing the initial search. Every door we checked, we did not see one student. We did not find one door unlocked and I knew there had to have been students in all those doors we checked. Lights were out. It was textbook.”

Counselors from around the county and the Central Intermediate Unit were made available to students at the football field after students were evacuated, Burnaford said. School is expected to be in session on Thursday and additional counselors will again be on site.

Burnaford said the notification about the threat was “absolutely one of the last calls that I would ever want to have,” but she was heartened by the response of law enforcement, students, staff and families.

“We notified parents as quickly and as often as we could,” she said. “As horrible as this has been, it worked like clockwork. Our students and staff and parents were amazing today.”

Weaver said that Centre County is fortunate to have law enforcement agencies that work well together, and that they are well-trained in responding to school threats.

“The days of waiting for the tactical SWAT team have been long gone,” Weaver said. “I know that this district and the departments in this county are very proactive in the training. We have SROs in the schools that are trained and are instructors as well in these types of scenarios. There’s a lot of ongoing training. We expect our officers at the ground level to know how to deal with these. The first four or so officers that are there, I don’t care if they’ve had one year on the job or 27 years on the job, or if they’re the chief or not, you’re going in to find the threat.”

Bellefonte police will conduct an after-action review with all of the agencies involved, Weaver said.

“We always learn from these,” he said. “Tomorrow or the next day we will sit down with every agency involved including the school district and go through an after-action review to see how we can improve next time. There’s always something you can improve on, and overall the superintendent and I think this went off without a hitch.”

Burnaford said she knows Wednesday morning’s incident was “a very, very scary moment,” for parents and students, especially just two days removed from the Nashville shooting.

“It happens everywhere. It is a fear that we have every day,” she said. “But we work as a district to keep every student and staff member as safe as we possibly can. We have talked to parents about some things that have happened elsewhere. The kids talk through that. It is always a concern.”

Families wait for Bellefonte students to be dismissed from Rogers Stadium. Students were moved to the football field after the high school was determined to be clear. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com
Law enforcement vehicles line the entrance to Bellefonte Area High School on Wednesday morning. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com
Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver speaks to reporters outside of Bellefonte Area High School. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com

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