In the week since the Apalachee High School shooting incident, where two students and two teachers were killed, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) has had about 15 incidents of spoof calls and social media threats that all ultimately turned out to be hoaxes.
Board of Education Police Department (BOEPD) Chief Terry Enoch said 11 of SCCPSS’s 55 schools were impacted by those incidents. Some incidents have been “closed out” while others are still under investigation. Of the threats and hoaxes he said, “We’re taking it very serious, we’re not playing around with it.”
Enoch and other SCCPSS officials held a press conference Thursday afternoon to address the recent rash of what turned out to be “non-credible threats” according to Chief Public Affairs & Administrative Services Officer Kurt Hetager.
Enoch said threats had originated from multiple sources and that they are designed to “cascade anxiety throughout the learning community.” He shared that one incident involved a student’s Snapchat account. Another one was a spoof call “voice over” that stated someone was “on route to a school to shoot it up.” Upon investigation, he said the phone account was determined to come from overseas. He affirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are “aggressively pursuing those that are involved in this type of behavior.”
He would directly address how many incidents may have involved students verse those that may have been the result of foreign actors.
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Superintendent Denise Watts, Ed. D., and other school officials used the press conference to also reiterate that students who might be involved in spreading such threats will be subject to discipline as detailed in the SCCPSS Student Code of Conduct. Chief Academic Officer Derrick Butler stated, “those threats and false reports are considered level three violations, and those consequences included up to expulsion.”
Watts stressed the importance for students to understand the consequences of such actions go beyond discipline. “We are not joking,” she said, regarding how serious the district is taking these threats. She said such hoaxes “pull away valuable district resources” and perpetuate fear. Such situations could distract officials from a truly credible threat, which would then make it difficult for the district to respond effectively, putting others at risk.
Enoch added that while the district does try to use restorative justice practices to address certain scenarios, there are potential criminal penalties beyond school consequences. “For example, terroristic threats and acts are charges that we have used before, and we will use them again depending on the circumstances,” he said.
Watts asked that parents remain vigilant and mindful of what students are doing on social media and communicating to their peers. She reiterated what others had said about school safety being a “shared responsibility.” She said schools’ safety teams include the BOEPD and local law enforcement agencies, but is also “inclusive of all of us, every teacher, every student, every principal, every custodian, every cafeteria worker, every school secretary, every parent, every individual that makes up a school community.”
She shared appreciation of families and parents for their patience and understanding over the last few days.
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Enoch and BOEPD Emergency Manager Lt. Justin Pratt discussed the district’s multi-layer security approach, which includes lockdowns of varying degrees, with some designed to keep people out, others to keep students in secure locations while a threat is identified and eliminated and others focused on evacuation.
Pratt spoke about security funds received from the state. He said that with the latest round of funding BOEPD is exploring options such as hiring additional school safety officers, buying additional weapons detectors and evaluating cameras and access controls. When asked if SCCPSS had any type of panic alert device system like the one used by teachers at Apalachee High School, Pratt said there is a “similar solution” being implemented throughout the district, though not the same company as the one used at Apalachee. He mentioned an audio enhancement measure through microphones that teachers wear and have emergency alert buttons.
Enoch said the multi-layer approach also entails communications plans that use plain language, not coded language, about what is actually occurring during an incident. He noted that the district’s communication team works to get ahead of incomplete or false narratives that may appear on social media or even in texts from students to parents. Pratt said that even while campus police may be responding to an incident they are typically communicating with Academic Affairs and the school staff to “make sure that messaging is appropriate and we have the most updated information.”
Hetager and Enoch advised that parents should be check for emails and phone message call outs from the SCCPSS communications team in the event of a school emergency rather rely on social media shares. Parents and family members are also advised to turn to SCCPSS social media channels should a situation arise. Hetager followed up by encouraging families to maintain “updated and accurate contact information” with their children’s schools so they can remain informed.
Each of the officials who spoke, echoed the districts ongoing requests that families and the community share the responsibility of safety by alerting schools and school officials if they see anything suspicious. “See something, say something,” remains the district’s safety mantra.
Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.