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Jenna Kochenauer was heading to lunch with colleagues when a police car sped past her.

“Then I saw a second one heading in that direction and I thought, huh, I wonder what’s going on,” she says.

“I reached over and turned on my police scanner, which I carry with me, and I started hearing about a possible shooting at the school that my kids go to”.

Jenna said she didn’t panic straight away but instead just focused on finding out if her children were safe.

Southridge High School was the target of a hoax school shooting in November. Pic: Kennewick Police Department
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Southridge High School was the target of a hoax school shooting in December. Pic: Kennewick Police Department

Kennewick police department, in Washington state, had received a call about an active shooter at Southridge High School, which Jenna’s children attend.

There were gunshots, the caller said, and a man wearing all black and carrying a rifle was on the premises.

The school was quickly placed in a lockdown. Nobody could enter or leave. Police arrived within minutes.

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Jenna’s youngest son was sheltering in a Spanish classroom. The teacher closed the blinds, barricaded the door and tried to keep the students calm as police swept through the school in search of the gunman.

But there never was a shooter. The call to the police was fake.

And Southridge High is not the only school in the US where this has happened.

What is swatting?

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The FBI told Sky News it ‘takes swatting very seriously’

“Swatting” is when a person calls the police, pretending to report a crime, only for officers to turn up with no emergency in sight.

The term was first used by the FBI in 2008 and stems from the highly trained SWAT teams that often attend serious crimes like school shootings. The phenomenon is not distinct to the US. The UK has also recorded its share of swatting incidents, notably Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts who woke up to armed police at her door after a fake report of a gunman nearby.

It became a popular prank or harassment tactic amongst online communities, often in a way to escalate arguments, and occasionally with deadly consequences. In 2017, Andrew Finch from Kansas was shot dead at this home by police after a swatting prank between gamers went wrong.

While sometimes ending tragically, they are often one-off incidents, targeting an individual because of a grievance or some other motive.

The spree targeting US schools is being conducted on a huge scale and seems to be without a clear pattern or motivation.

Swatting calls have targeted a majority of US states

Mo Canady, head of the National Association of School Resource Officers says the school swatting spree has been 'bizarre'
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Mo Canady, head of the National Association of School Resource Officers, says the school swatting spree is ‘bizarre’

Schools have occasionally been swatted by students playing a prank.

But the latest spree, which started in the US in September 2022, has been so coordinated and affected so many states that the FBI has deemed it worthy of investigation.

“It’s pretty bizarre,” says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), which provides training to law enforcement officers based in schools.

“We’ve been used to dealing with [bomb threats] and schools have become pretty good at it. This phenomenon of calling in an active shooter event is quite new.”

NASRO estimates this spree has so far affected 40 states, a figure that is based on based on their tracking of local news coverage.

And some of these hoaxes are even happening on the same day. On 14 September 2022, at least two schools in Texas were sent into panic after calls reported active shooters. By the end of the week, schools in Kansas, California, Illinois and Missouri had all experienced the same.

Since then, dozens of schools have been targeted, many of them being swatted within hours of each other.

In the case of Southridge High, three other high schools in the area also went into lockdown after similar calls, and eight schools in nearby Montana were forced to do the same.

“It’s your worst day, right? Those types of calls, mass shooting. We train for them, and we’re prepared for them, but we hope they never come,” says Christian Walters, commander at the Kennewick Police Department.

He tells Sky News that 24 similar “incidents” were recorded within an hour of the call in a “coordinated effort” along the West Coast, ranging from California to Alaska.

Why are schools being swatted?

James Turgal, vice president of Optiv
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James Turgal is ‘baffled’ by the swatting spree despite over 20 years experience in the FBI

“It’s not just kids making prank phone calls,” says James Turgal, a former FBI assistant director who worked in its information and technology branch.

“If you listen, and I listened to the actual caller, it’s clearly an adult who’s doing this,” he tells Sky News.

“What’s the motivation? Why would somebody do this? Are they just trying to terrorise people? Are they being paid to do it?”

Turgal, now vice president of cyber risk and strategy at Optiv Security, says the caller seemed calm, despite the terrifying situation they were supposed to be in.

“You could tell it was staged,” he says.

Turgal served in the FBI for 21 years and still finds these calls baffling and sinister.

“Somebody could be utilising this technique to do the swatting calls because they’re sitting back and looking at how fast [the police] actually respond. What is the number of officers that respond? How do they do it? But that possibility doesn’t make a lot of sense given the randomness of the states.”

There doesn’t seem to be a specific state or school district the caller is trying to gather information on.

Police in the US have been grappling with a school shooting hoax sweeping the nation
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Police in the US have been grappling with a school shooting hoax sweeping the nation

Hoax calls ‘are like putting gasoline on the fire’

While the incidents only last a few hours, the impact on the students, staff and parents caught up in them can be long-lasting.

“We’re already dealing, worldwide, with a lot of mental health issues, especially among adolescents. This is a bit like putting gasoline on the fire,” says Mo Canady, a former police lieutenant.

Canady’s organisation, NASRO, issued guidance to schools in September to deal with swatting, including being aware of the needs of vulnerable students who may find the ordeal more stressful.

The police and firefighters attending to these hoax calls also experience real emotional trauma.

“This takes a tremendous toll on officers who think they’re walking into what could be the most horrific thing they’ve ever seen in their careers,” Canady says.

Plus, these callouts are a huge drain on resources, pulling in police, firefighters and paramedics from local and state level, and leaving other areas vulnerable to crime.

Schools and communities remain defiant

Okemos High School , Michigan Credit: Cody Butler/ WILX-TV
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Okemos High School in Michigan was a victim of swatting this week. Credit: Cody Butler/ WILX-TV

After a period of quiet over January, this week multiple schools across Michigan, Vermont and California were the latest victims of the swatting calls.

Vermont State Police said the calls are reported to have come from “VOIP phone numbers or potentially spoofed 802 numbers” and appear to be part of an “ongoing nationwide hoax”.

VoIP numbers are real phone numbers but they operate over the internet, and can be used to hide the caller’s location.

The calls were an “act of terrorism”, according to Vermont Governor Phil Scott in a statement.

The FBI told Sky News it is urging the public to stay vigilant of any suspicious behaviour.

While the motive behind the calls is a mystery, the drain on resources and emotional impact is a real issues local communities must grapple with.

Sanford High in Maine is another school to have been rocked by a hoax call. A week after the incident, students wrote an article for their online newspaper, the Spartan Times, titled ‘November 15 wasn’t a hoax to us’, referring to the day SWAT teams filled their school hunting for a shooter and students barricaded themselves inside classrooms.

“To us it was real,” it reads, “to us, our lives were in danger”.

The piece ends with a defiant statement: “We are not broken. Our community will continue to come together and thrive in times of need.”

It seems clear the US will continue to be unsettled by these random attacks, but the schools, and the services that protect them, are determined not to be defeated.

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again – as the president fights back

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Elon Musk steps up attacks on Trump once again - as the president fights back

Elon Musk has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill – weeks after a spectacular fallout between the world’s richest man and the US president.

Following weeks of relative silence after clashing with Mr Trump over his “big beautiful bill”, the billionaire vowed to unseat politicians who support it.

In a post on X, Musk said those who had campaigned on cutting spending but then backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame”.

He added: “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk also threatened to put their faces on a poster which said “liar” and “voted to increase America’s debt” by $5trn (£3.6trn).

The posts attracted a swift reply from Mr Trump, who claimed the billionaire “may get more subsidy than any human being in history” for his electric car business.

“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”

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Elon’s dad on the Musk-Trump bust-up

Musk spent at least $250m (£182m) supporting Mr Trump in his presidential campaign and then led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sacked about 120,000 federal employees.

He has argued the legislation would greatly increase the US national debt and wipe out the savings he claimed he achieved through DOGE.

As the Senate discussed the package, Musk called it “utterly insane and destructive”.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the bill’s massive spending indicated “we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”

“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.

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Musk previously said some of his social media posts during his dramatic fallout with Mr Trump “went too far”.

He had shared a series of posts on X, including one that described Mr Trump’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.

He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But Musk later wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

In response, the president told the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”

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What’s in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

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What's in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'?

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Martha Kelner and Mark Stone break down what’s in Donald Trump’s huge tax and spending bill. He’s trying to sign it into law by the end of the week.

They also discuss the State Department’s decision to revoke US visas for British band Bob Vylan after their Glastonbury performance.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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Benjamin Netanyahu to meet Donald Trump next week amid calls for Gaza ceasefire

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Benjamin Netanyahu to meet Donald Trump next week amid calls for Gaza ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be meeting Donald Trump next Monday, according to US officials.

The visit on 7 July comes after Mr Trump suggested it was possible a ceasefire in Gaza could be reached within a week.

On Sunday, he wrote on social media: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”

At least 60 people killed across Gaza on Monday, in what turned out to be some of the heaviest attacks in weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with US President Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters
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Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Donald Trump during a previous meeting. Pic: Reuters

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 56,500 people have been killed in the 20-month war.

The visit by Mr Netanyahu to Washington has not been formally announced and the officials who said it would be going ahead spoke on condition of anonymity.

An Israeli official in Washington also confirmed the meeting next Monday.

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was in constant communication with the Israeli government.

She said Mr Trump viewed ending the war in Gaza and returning remaining hostages held by Hamas as a top priority.

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The war in Gaza broke out in retaliation for Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw a further 250 taken hostage.

An eight-week ceasefire was reached in the final days of Joe Biden’s US presidency, but Israel resumed the war in March after trying to get Hamas to accept new terms on next steps.

Talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled over whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire.

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