Just before noon on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, law enforcement in Douglas County received a threat of a possible school shooting, prompting every school in Douglas County to go on lockdown. At this time, law enforcement believes the threats to be false, but out of an abundance of caution, they put all schools on lockdown while they investigate these claims. At this time they are not sure what school or schools were the target of this threat which was why they put all schools in the county under lockdown.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is asking parents not to come to the schools to pick up their children because they believe the threats are part of a swatting incident to monitor police response and generate panic in the communities.
At this time, law enforcement is staged at every school in the county out of an abundance of caution and is taking the threats seriously.
The hoax threats are something that has been a growing trend across the nation, as several states over the last week have reported similar instances. Some of those states include Michigan, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. A 16-year-old teen was arrested in January in connection with a string of school threats in northern Indiana, and a 15-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl were both arrested in Florida linked to a number of school threats in Wisconsin, Washington, North Carolina, Indiana, and Ontario. At this time, police do not know if the two 15-year-olds knew each other or not.
These threats were again false reports and police are actively working to clear all the schools across the county and are investigating the source of the threats.
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