By Robert Jordan | Founder, Protecting Our Students, Inc. | Terrorism Liaison Officer Published on protectingourstudents.org
Swatting Is a School Safety Crisis. Is Your School Ready?
Schools across Missouri — and across the country — are receiving fake emergency calls designed to trigger a massive law enforcement response. It’s called swatting. And if your school isn’t prepared for it, the chaos it creates can be just as dangerous as a real threat.
The Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) and Courage2Report recently issued an alert confirming that three Missouri schools were targeted in swatting attempts in a single reporting period. Each call was routed either directly to the school or to a local 911 center. None were real — but every one of them required a full emergency response.
This is not a hypothetical threat. It is happening right now, and it exposes a gap in how most schools think about safety preparedness.
What Is Swatting — and Why Does It Matter for Schools?
Swatting is the deliberate act of making a false emergency report — typically a bomb threat, active shooter scenario, or hostage situation — to prompt a large-scale law enforcement response at a targeted location. The name comes from the SWAT teams these calls are designed to deploy.
According to the MIAC bulletin, current swatting incidents targeting K-12 schools share several common characteristics:
• Use of a robotic voice or voice changer
• A demand for money in exchange for not carrying out the threatened act
• Claims of bombs planted in bathrooms or libraries, sometimes with hostage claims
• Threats to shoot police, first responders, or the public
Even when no actual threat exists, swatting creates real danger: students and staff are traumatized, learning is disrupted, emergency resources are strained, and law enforcement faces heightened tension in high-stakes situations with imperfect information.
The Safety Gap Swatting Exposes
Most schools have emergency protocols. Fewer have tested them under realistic conditions. Almost none have a standardized, verified safety baseline that would tell them — or parents — how prepared they actually are.
Swatting exploits exactly that ambiguity. When a threat call comes in, administrators, staff, and law enforcement are forced to make split-second decisions with no reliable safety framework to anchor them. Is the school layout communicated to first responders? Are communication protocols clear? Has staff trained on lockdown versus evacuation thresholds?
A school with a verified, standardized safety posture is in a fundamentally different position than one operating on instinct and outdated binders. Swatting incidents don’t just test your emergency response — they expose every gap in your safety infrastructure.
What the MIAC Is Recommending
The MIAC bulletin urges schools to treat all threats as credible and follow established protocols until a threat is confirmed invalid. Critically, they emphasize that reporting these incidents is essential — not optional. Centralized reporting allows analysts to identify patterns, track perpetrators, and share intelligence across jurisdictions.
Schools and community members can report suspicious activity through:
• The MOMIAC portal: momiac.mo.gov/momiac
• Courage2Report: courage2report.com | 1-866-748-7047
• MIAC directly: (866) 362-6422 | miac@mshp.dps.mo.gov | SafeNation mobile app
These are the right immediate steps. But reporting after an incident is reactive. The stronger position is to eliminate the safety gaps that make swatting incidents so disruptive in the first place.
A Standardized Safety Framework Is the Answer
At Protecting Our Students, Inc. (POSI), we exist to close the gap between what schools think their safety posture is and what it actually is. Our 4-Level Safety Standard℠ provides a structured, verified framework for measuring school safety — not as a one-time audit, but as a continuous, improving process.
Our Level 3 Safety Partnership Assessment℠ is specifically designed to identify the procedural, behavioral, and communication gaps that incidents like swatting expose. Schools that complete a Level 3 assessment know exactly where they stand — and so do their staff, their parents, and their first responder partners.
When a fake threat call comes in, a school with a verified safety baseline responds differently. Protocols are clear. Roles are assigned. First responders have context. Panic is replaced by preparedness.
Don’t Wait for a Swatting Call to Find the Gaps
The MIAC bulletin is a warning. Swatting incidents are increasing in frequency, sophistication, and geographic reach. Missouri schools have already been targeted.
If you’re a school administrator, safety coordinator, or district leader, now is the time to assess your preparedness — not after your school’s name appears in a bulletin.
Contact POSI directly to discuss a no-cost Level 3 Safety Partnership Assessment℠ for your school.
📧 robert@protectingourstudents.org
📞 (636) 254-9193
🌐 protectingourstudents.org
Protecting Our Students, Inc. (POSI) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to establishing standardized safety frameworks for K–12 schools. Robert Jordan is the Founder of POSI and a credentialed Terrorism Liaison Officer.
