"Instant fear": Hoax calls force Massachusetts schools into lockdown one day after Nashville shooting
FRAMINGHAM - Several Massachusetts schools with forced into lockdown Tuesday after a series of hoax or swatting calls. The calls were received in Framingham, Foxboro, Mansfield, Franklin, Bellingham, Haverhill, and Reading.
"My son sent me a message saying I'm OK, but I'm afraid," said parent Yari Rivera outside of Framingham High School.
The calls came one day after an actual school shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee. Three students and three adults were killed in the tragedy. The 28-year-old shooter was also killed by police.
The hoax calls and the public attention on school safety is once again producing anxiety for parents.
"It's fear. It's instant fear," said Framingham parent Shawn Pickering.
Newton Police Chief John Carmichael says his department uses a gentle reassurance to make sure that parents and kids feel safe in this environment.
"It should really be more of a subdued kind of presence. Just kind of letting the community know that we're there, letting the students know that we're there. Things like school resource officers or youth officers," Carmichael said.
RELATED: What's being done to fight recent 'swatting' calls that prompt school lockdowns?
Carmichael argues that Massachusetts officers are well trained to respond to active shooters. He says the state could benefit to having a more uniform approach to school safety.
"One of the things that would be nice to see here in Massachusetts is the all-hazards approach or the critical incident response of our schools in general and making that more uniform so that a school in Western Mass. is doing the same thing as a school in Eastern Mass.," he said.
While police departments and school districts work on assessing threats and calming fears, a company, once based in Pittsfield, Mass. is producing technology to prevent school shootings.
Advanced Impact Technologies produces School Guard Glass, attack resistance glass that can replace entryways in school buildings. School Guard Glass can prevent bats, bricks, or even bullets from breaching the glass for up to 12 minutes, allowing law enforcement time to respond to schools in an emergency.
"We are constantly in the Massachusetts market working with school boards, security consulting firms," said Shea Cox, Sales Director at Advanced Impact Technologies.
