MOUNT VERNON — Knox County schools increased the law enforcement presence on their campuses following an alleged bomb threat at Danville local schools on Monday morning.
Danville Superintendent Jason Snively confirmed the district received a phone call and took the necessary steps to ensure the safety of students and staff.
“We directly communicated with parents and staff, and for their safety we needed to operate on a lockdown,” he said via email. “Our SRO, county sheriff deputies, and the other school districts in the county were also involved and/or communicated with [us], including the Ohio School Safety Center.”
Other county schools also took precautions.
According to a message Mount Vernon Superintendent Bill Seder sent to parents and families, “Danville Local Schools received a phone call reporting a possible bomb in the school building. As a result, Danville immediately implemented a lockdown while local law enforcement responded to the scene.
“Officers conducted a thorough search of the building and no suspicious items were found. Danville Local Schools lifted the lockdown and resumed normal operations by approximately 11 a.m.”
Seder’s message stated that law enforcement officials indicated the call appeared to be part of a growing number of “swatting” incidents.
Swatting is a false report made to schools and emergency services. The caller claims there is a serious threat in order to trigger a large law enforcement response.
Seder said that out of an abundance of caution and in coordination with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement conducted cursory precautionary sweeps of several MVCS buildings within the KCSO jurisdiction. Buildings included Wiggins Street, Twin Oak, and Columbia elementary schools.
Seder said the KCSO completed the sweeps quickly and identified no concerns.
An abundance of caution
Neither Fredericktown nor Centerburg went on lockdown, but both increased their law enforcement presence. Both posted a message on Facebook.
“There was not a direct threat to us. Based on the information received from law enforcement, we decided, like we said [in our Facebook message], out of an abundance of caution, just to keep students inside for the day,” Fredericktown Superintendent Gary Chapman said.
“Our SRO (school resource officer) was the first to be informed, and he did a patrol like he normally does, but it was more intentional.”
Centerburg Supt. Ryan Gallwitz said the district increased its law enforcement presence because of the rash of alleged bomb threats across the state.
“This has been a trend. There was a whole bunch of incidents down in Columbus last week of bomb threats, so we were expecting something to happen across the county,” Gallwitz said.
“There have been lots of hoax calls come in, and we wanted to be prepared. So our resource officer communicated with dispatch and just out of precaution they sent some folks our way.”
Gallwitz said he posted a message on Facebook because the officers were in different types of uniforms. For example, the Knox County SWAT team wears green fatigues, a more military-type uniform.
“I didn’t want people to panic with everything happening overseas and just with how situations are today,” he said.
“I sent the message out and said, ‘hey, we don’t have any issues here, but there’s security on site.’”
Gallwitz said security forces patrolled the perimeter around the buildings for most of the day.
A message left with East Knox was not returned by the time of publication.
‘They have our back’
Gallwitz said he is “incredibly grateful” for the communication between law enforcement officers in the school systems.
“They respond at a moment’s notice, and they’re always monitoring, even in the background, what’s happening at schools, more than the community would ever know,” he said.
“They’re always watching the schools, and they have our back. They protect us. They keep us safe.”