Cowards prey on actual school tragedies

Schools in Chelmsford on Monday were unwitting victims of a series of hoax calls sent to several schools across the state threatening violence.

According to Chelmsford Police, dispatchers received a 911 call at about 12:17 p.m. Monday, in which the caller threatened to cause harm and inflict damage at Chelmsford High.

It briefly put both the high school and neighboring Harrington Elementary School into what police and school officials called a “hold in place,” while law enforcement extensively searched the school grounds and secured the building, Chief James Spinney said in a press release.

Upon determining the call was bogus and that there was no threat to the school community, the “hold in place” order was lifted, Spinney said.

In a message to Chelmsford High families Monday afternoon, Principal Stephen Murray said the call appeared to be computer-generated, and that another, unnamed school district received a similar call Monday.

In fact, Chelmsford was one of many school districts across the state targeted in this manner.

The same type of hoax call put schools from Amesbury to Westfield on heightened alert.

In Boston, a call to police indicated that someone was on the way to East Boston High School or Charlestown High school with a gun, according to letters sent home to families.

Elsewhere, seemingly the same threat format took place in multiple towns.

State police announced that its “Fusion Center” — where state, local and federal authorities can combine resources — was “assisting in the investigation into the source of the calls.”

State police spokesman David Procopio characterized the threats as “hoax ‘swatting’ calls,” referring to the practice of calling in a fake report in order to bring a huge police response to one place as a prank.

More concerning, this rash of hoax calls targeting Massachusetts schools is just another example of a disturbing trend.

Threats of violence called in — fake ones like these— have lately made the news nationally. Around the country, “swatting” instances have made headlines, with cops and others saying they create dangerous situations.

If only these hoaxers realized how a legitimate warning call of imminent violence could have prevented the mass murders committed at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Florida’s Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in 2018, and the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May, perhaps they’d think twice about creating the senseless chaos they apparently seek.