Oakland Catholic students are escorted from St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland following reports of an active-shooter event at two area high schools. Police confirmed that there was no shooter. (Photo by Quinn Glabicki/PublicSource)
Two Pittsburgh-area schools were the subjects of 911 calls that scrambled public safety professionals and nerves, but turned out to be false.
Ash White picked up her son, Tristian White, from Central Catholic High School early on Wednesday, as did many parents in response to reports of active shooters at two Oakland schools that turned out to be false — but terrifying.
“When I got the call, the teacher I was talking to was hysterically crying,” Ash said. “I came all the way from Schenley Park where I live. I kicked my neighbor’s door in and just took their car key cause I don’t have my own car.”
Tristian, a 9th grader, said that he and classmates thought there was an active shooter in the school, so they barricaded their classroom using desks and chairs.
He said that they only removed the barricades once people outside of the classroom assured them that there was no active shooter.
Ash said the response time of law enforcement “was great” and that the school did a good job of communicating the situation with her and other parents.
Allegheny County officials announced late in the morning that reports of active shooter events in area schools were false. But by that time anxiety spurred by the hoaxes and by the nation’s relentless violence had interrupted the normal comings and goings of hundreds, if not thousands, of people and left nerves jangled.
Dozens of Pennsylvania schools were subject to hoax calls reporting active shooters.
The “swatting” calls, meant to evoke large police presence, also occurred in Erie and Meadville high schools to our north, several schools in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley as well as at least four high schools in central Pennsylvania.
Locally, the county’s 911 dispatch center had received two such calls related to Oakland Catholic High School and Central Catholic, according to a press release.
No shooter was found, nor injuries reported, at any school.
Students at the two schools began returning to their homerooms at around 11:40 a.m. after police declared the schools to be safe.
Acting Police Chief Tom Stangrecki said at a news conference that the bureau has already begun investigating the source of the 911 calls that falsely reported a shooter. He said they will investigate alongside the Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI.
Stangrecki said the police learned “within a minute” of the fraudulent 911 call that there was in fact no shooter, but law enforcement responded to clear the buildings as if there was a shooter.
Police were to remain in place at Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic until the end of the day.
Coming just days after a school shooting in Nashville, in which three adults and three children were killed, the hoax prompted a vigorous and emotional response.
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