By Barbara O'Brien
Source The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Cathleen Spero has never been as frightened in her 29 years of teaching as she was Thursday.
She was with 19 students in her biology class at Lockport High School, when the principal announced "Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown" through the public address system.
Spero closed the classroom door and wondered if she had missed the notice that there would be a drill that day. Then, another, more emphatic announcement of "Lockdown, Lockdown, Lockdown" came.
The teacher and her students, along with others throughout the building, spent the next 30 to 45 terrifying minutes in hiding before they learned that there wasn't an active shooter in the school.
It was a swatting attack.
Swatting is a bogus threat that tries to draw law enforcement, particularly SWAT teams, to respond to a particular location.
There were 36 false reports of mass shooting incidents in schools across New York state March 30, including Lockport and South Park high schools. State troopers and others in law enforcement responded to those schools and checked on dozens of others, as well.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., visited Lockport High School on Wednesday to announce his plan to combat the swatting attacks, which have become more prevalent throughout the country.
Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said he has talked with FBI officials, and he wants to allocate $10 million to the FBI so that the agency can get the personnel and equipment it needs this year to crack down on swatting.
He also wants the FBI to start tracking incidents across the U.S., to find out when, why, how and from where the threats are coming.
"Particularly because we won't be able to figure out the trends without the data. We need this data ASAP," Schumer said as he was surrounded by Lockport school and city staff and officials.
Schumer said he wrote FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to ask if the swatting attacks against New York schools are related to similar incidents in other states. He also asked if the FBI knows whether they were committed by a single entity or in a coordinated effort, and whether they were committed by foreign or domestic actors.
Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman said Lockport Police, Niagara County sheriff's deputies and State Police got to the school within three minutes of the call, and public works crews quickly blocked off the street.
More than 100 law enforcement officers from many agencies responded, Lockport Police Chief Steven Abbott said.
"We are grateful that it was a false alarm. But, meanwhile, the students are terrified. The faculty are terrified. They're blocking doors that can't lock. They're trying to figure out, 'How am I going to protect these kids? When am I going to approach this person with a gun?' " Roman said.
She said the caller told authorities the shooter was in a bathroom.
"We had young men and young girls in a bathroom when the lockdown happened," Roman said. "They had a gun to their faces. They had to be patted down to ensure that they were not a shooter, they did not have a weapon. That is traumatizing."
About a half hour into the crisis, Spero received a text message that the report had been a hoax. Police then had to clear every classroom. Everyone had to remain quiet and out of sight until law enforcement released them.
"And that's when my mom mode kicked in," the biology teacher said, "and I said, 'I've got to make these kids feel better.' "
She thought food would help, and brought a candy dish to spots where students were hiding.
"They all had a little bit of candy, and they were a little better," Spero said, "until the police came in guns drawn, you know: 'Hands up.' And that kind of got them, too."
The students know the school resource officer and many of those in law enforcement who arrived, which helped calm them, too.
"When something like this happens, it is terrifying," Schumer said. "False reports like this matter even more in places like Buffalo, where we've had a real attack not very long ago."
Spero agreed.
"You just think in the back of your mind, 'I'm responsible for these kids,' " she said. "I have to make sure they go home at night."
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