Police in Barrington are still investigating after multiple “computerized bomb threats” made to Barrington High School on Monday at first led to no lockdown but then prompted an evacuation of the school.
The initial alleged bomb threat phoned in to the school that morning was quickly identified by Barrington police and other authorities as textbook hoaxes, the police deputy chief told Pioneer Press.
“When the phone call came in, it was a digital, computerized voice. It came in from a six-digit phone number that didn’t come back to anything,” police Deputy Chief John Burke said about the first call BHS received Monday. “Right away, those were the cues we’d read about for the past two years and that [don’t] hold a lot of credibility.”
Burke said the department has not made any arrests in connection with the incident Monday, but is aware of videos circulating online that appear to show a threat being made to the school.
Burke said whomever made the threat used a “digital, computerized voice,” presumably to avoid being identified.
Pioneer Press obtained one of the alleged videos circulating but has not been able to independently confirm its authenticity. Police would not comment on the specific video Pioneer Press obtained.
“There’s some different videos floating around, (and Barrington police are) looking at all of them,” Burke said.
He said the Barrington Police Department and Barrington School District 220, which BHS is part of, have been holding regular security meetings where they have been preparing for the possibility of a swatting call — where fake threats are phoned in, leading to a large emergency response — and were able to determine quickly on Monday that the threat was not credible.
The deputy chief called swatting a “nationwide” issue that is on the rise, and said the department has also received guidance and intelligence tips from the State Terrorism Intelligence Center and the FBI.
At first, the school did not go into a lockdown. But after subsequent alleged threats, officials said BHS was evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.” After-school activities were postponed.
Burke said it is possible the additional threats BHS received could have been because of someone listening to fire dispatch communications, from which they may have been able to gather that the building was not being evacuated.
The department believes someone may have been listening to the fire department dispatch and could have called in the additional threats or instructed someone to call them in.
Barrington police coordinated with neighboring law enforcement agencies and called in bomb-detecting K9 units to sweep the school and stairwells for any threats, according to authorities.
“We were trying to not cause hysteria or any kind of panic while working through these things,” Burke said.
It is unclear whether Barrington students have been questioned by police in relation to the threats.
Burke said the department has seen online instances where people are able to pay someone offsite to call in a threat “at your school so you can go home.”
“It’s one of those things where if we thought there was any grain of authenticity to this, we’re going to err on the side of caution,” he said. “But what we don’t want to do is buy into some of the stuff that’s going on around the country. Then those things kind of take on a life of its own, where you’re constantly sending kids home, and then something else could happen.”
Lake County is now one of at least 20 Illinois counties to have experienced swatting calls in recent weeks, according to a recent Chicago Tribune report.
Classes resumed on a normal schedule Tuesday.
District 220 spokewoman Samantha Scheinman wrote in an email to Pioneer Press Wednesday that the district is unable to discuss or comment on individual students and any disciplinary actions.
“We take the safety and security of our students and staff very seriously,” Scheineman said. “We continue to investigate this incident and will respond in accordance with our Board of Education policy and student code of conduct.”
