CANTON, Ohio — With school returning in Northeast Ohio comes increased safety concerns for students.
The Educator's School Safety Network reports that as many as 63% of violent incidents reported at schools all this past year were responses related to false reports of an active shooter in the school.
Stark County's Sheriff George Maier has a message to those people making such swatting calls.
"We investigate it and we track it back. In the few cases we've had this year, we've been able to track it back to individual students who thought they were being cute, who thought they weren't going to get caught, but inevitably, they were caught." Maier said.
These false reports aren't new, but are getting considerably worse, according to The Educator's School Safety Network. The group states it's seen a 546% increase in threats from the 2018-19 to the 2022-23 school years, going from 69 false reports to 446.
You can read the full report below.
Maier has this message for parents.
"Be a parent. Know what your kids are doing. They're on social media? You need to know where they're going on social media. Get involved," Maier said.
The Stark County Sheriff's Office reports they've already received three hoax calls since the beginning of this school year, one each in three different districts across the county.
"To those who think it's cute to make a false threat and disrupt the school day and induce panic, we are going to be coming down on you. There are consequences to pay if you're going to perpetrate a fraud on our schools and endanger the lives of our students that are in school each and every day," Maier said.
Sheriff Maier said there are a range of consequences that students can face for these false calls including swatting.
Swatting is now considered a fourth degree felony in the state of Ohio, meaning you could face fines of up to $5,000 and 18 months in jail.