What is a swatting call? How can schools know when a threat is legitimate?

May 3-In April, North East Independent School District police arrested a 13-year-old boy in connection with a string of school shooting threats at the district's Nimitz Middle School after the campus received a series of threatening calls and violent messages written on bathroom walls that week.

What is a swatting call?

Swatting calls, or threatening calls intended to cause panic and a police response, have increased across Texas school districts in recent years, according to Kathy Martinez-Prather, the director of Texas State University's Texas School Safety Center.

Texas law enforcement agencies responded to a wave of false active shooter reports at schools across the state in the months following the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

The number of hoax threats, or bomb threats, have likewise increased, Martinez-Prather said. These fake threats target institutions - including schools - nationwide on a daily basis, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Assessing what threats are dangerous requires law enforcement to do more than just evaluate the words used in a threat. They must investigate if the person making the threat has intent, means and capability to follow through on it, officials with the National Center for School Safety have said.

Data show that schools receive an increased number in these calls following highly publicized events, important dates, the beginning of the school year or right before state testing, Martinez-Prather explained.

Why should schools pay attention to these threats?

Even if a gun isn't brought onto a campus, these types of threats are not harmless. They can take an immense emotional toll on students, staff and district parents.

These threats can also place strain on local emergency response systems. Districts still need to treat each threat like a real emergency, said Martinez-Prather. The center's Standard Response Protocol (SRP) outlines a routine emergency response procedure for districts, from holding in place to evacuation.

Following the state's bell-to-bell ban that prohibits student cellphone use throughout the school day, districts are responsible for creating plans to maintain consistent communication with parents and families.

Districts also engage in threat prevention strategies to be more proactive. San Antonio's Northside ISD, the fourth largest in the state, has a 2 4/7 anonymous tip line where parents and students can report any threats or concerns.

In 2019, state legislators mandated districts create behavioral threat assessment teams and increase mental health access for students in Texas public schools. The goal of these resources is to proactively identify individuals who may pose a threat and intervene before a violent incident happens.

While students may make a threat as a prank to get out of school, they may face criminal consequences for their actions.

"We've seen a lot of cases across the country where students thought it was funny to do this, and they didn't realize they were actually committing a crime," Kathy Martinez-Prather said.

The Texas School Safety Center launched a prevention campaign, "Threats Are No Joke!" in August 2025 to help classroom teachers and parents start conversations with their students around the consequences of making false threats.

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