FAIRFIELD – Today, Notre Dame High School in Fairfield received a “threat of violence” call to the school, prompting a swift police response. The school was placed on secure lockdown until it was determined that there was no active threat.
“As a community and state that still feels the harrowing effects of violence and threatening danger affecting our communities, there must be absolutely zero tolerance for threats against our schools filled with students and faculty educators. In 2016, I championed in the CT General Assembly Public Act 16-67 increasing the penalty for such threats from a Class D to a Class C felony. Anyone who violates our laws and threatens our schools should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. It should be abundantly clear that if you commit one of these acts, you will certainly face jail time.” Senator Tony Hwang stated regarding today’s “swatting” incident.
“Swatting” is a recent phenomenon where a hoax phone call is made to emergency services, deceiving them to send police to a location where no crime is occurring. They may fraudulently claim that active violence, kidnapping, and other illicit activity is happening at the target location, just to elicit a strong police response and disrupt/harass the “swatting” target.
“These fraudulent threats of violence have tremendously negative impacts on the mental health of students, parents, and faculty. As a community, we must come together and present a strong deterrent to this ghastly behavior and will work vigilantly with law enforcement to find and punish these criminal perpetrators.” Senator Hwang added.
Fairfield police noted that they are confident the call came from out of the area, and they are actively investigating the source of the call.
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