Parents concerned as metro schools continue seeing shooting threats

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Almost simultaneously, multiple metro schools were rushed with law enforcement after fake active shooter calls.

“This is serious you know, so whoever is doing it need to realize that it’s nothing to play with,” Richard Simpson a parent of two children who attend Park Hill High.

No students or staff were hurt, but once again, school districts are on high alert.

One of the “swatting calls” was in Plattsburg, Missouri, and resulted in a lockdown while multiple agencies searched the campus.

“Hurry up and get up here and see what’s going on to make sure she is safe,” Simpson said.

It’s every parent’s nightmare; being at work or home and hearing about an active shooter alert at your child’s school.

“It’s sad but you got to stay on guard at all times you never let your guards down,” Simpson continued.

Around 11 a.m. the Park Hill School District said a call from overseas to dispatch claimed there was an active shooter in Park Hill High School. It was a hoax, but, of course, law enforcement still responded.

In a statement, KCPD said:

“We have resources to deal with calls like this whether they are real or determined to be unfounded. We train and prepare for any eventuality.”

At 11:02 a.m. officers in Plattsburg, Missouri responded to a call that someone was locked in a bathroom at Plattsburg High with an AR-15 rifle with the intention to hurt students. There were multiple schools locked down.

However, in both cases, the calls were fake.

“We need love we don’t need this we got enough things going on now in this world,” explained Simpson.

“Why would you want to discourage people doing the best they can to make a living and have them stressed out about their kids coming home from school? Come on man.”

Park Hill District leaders sent this note home to families:

Dear Park Hill School District Families,

This morning, around 11:00 a.m., a swatting call from overseas to police dispatch came through as a hotline call to the Kansas City Police Department.

This swatting call then triggered the police scanner to report that an active shooter was present at Park Hill High School. There was no active shooter at Park Hill High School or anywhere near Park Hill High School. We were immediately in contact with our law enforcement partners to work through this information.

Again, there was no emergency happening at Park Hill High School. Swatting is “the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.” This is what happened about an hour ago in Park Hill. The prank call came from overseas.

From here, several media outlets inquired about an active shooter at Park Hill High School as the result of the police scanner activity. We have been working with our media partners to reinforce that this was a swatting call and attempt to cause fear and chaos in our community.

Please know that we continue to work through these situations with our law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our students, staff, families and community.

Thank you for continuing to help us take care of each other. When things like this happen, your trust, understanding and support is so appreciated. We’ll continue to work through this together.

Again, both calls were hoaxes everyone is safe. KCPD tells FOX4 that they are making headway in identifying the origin of the call made to Park Hill.

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