East Hampton Town police spent Tuesday morning investigating an anonymous email threat received overnight by multiple school districts and ultimately deemed it “noncredible.”
The practice of falsely reporting a serious crime is called “swatting,” and it’s on the rise. Springs, Amagansett, Wainscott, and Sag Harbor were among 50 school districts in New York State targeted this week by one or more perpetrators, according to New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“I want to reassure parents that their children are safe at school,” Governor Hochul said in a statement. “Swatting threats are false and intended to cause panic and scare students, teachers, and families. I have directed the New York State Police to investigate these threats and work closely with all levels of law enforcement to identify the perpetrators, hold them accountable, and restore the sense of safety and security our children deserve. . . . My top priority will always be the safety of New Yorkers.”
The anonymous email received by local school officials stated, “We have planted bombs on the inside,” and demanded ransom. Jeff Nichols, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, said in an email to the community that “the email was not specific to a particular school district, has been investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies, and has been deemed noncredible.”
“It’s a disturbing commentary on where we are as a nation, but this is the type of thing that does happen from time to time,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said at a town board meeting on Tuesday after reading a statement from police. “We have the full faith and confidence in our local law enforcement to deal with these types of situations in the school districts as well. It’s unfortunate that we train for these types of situations and do drills, but that’s the state of affairs at this time. Hopefully we will see things improve. “
While guns were not involved in the swatting incident Tuesday, it came on the heels of yet another school tragedy: a shooting on March 27, at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., in which a heavily armed intruder — a former student at the school — fired 152 rounds and killed three 9-year-old children, a custodian, a substitute teacher, and the head of the school. According to national news reports, the
shooter had been able to legally buy seven guns even while under care for a mental health disorder.
Four months into 2023, the shooting in Nashville was the 19th incident on a U.S. school or university campus in which a gun was involved and at least one person was wounded, CNN reported on March 29.
On Monday night — a matter of hours before he would receive the threatening email — Mr. Nichols had addressed the topic of safety and security with the Sag Harbor School Board. “All district security protocols remain in place,” he said in his email Tuesday, “and we continue to communicate with law enforcement agencies in order to ensure that our students and school community are safe.”
The matter of safety also came up at Tuesday’s meeting of the East Hampton School Board. There had been a lockdown drill planned for this week at the high school, but Sara Smith, the principal, didn’t want to alarm her students. “Given the proximity to Nashville and the events of this morning, we have opted to postpone that,” she said.
Jackie Lowey, an East Hampton School Board member and parent of two former students, urged her colleagues to pass a resolution in support of stricter gun control legislation at the congressional level. It doesn’t matter how much money the district pours into security measures, she said, because “it’s all a waste of money until there’s gun control. . . . We have millions of dollars and we can’t protect our kids, and the only people who can protect our kids are doing nothing. There are political apparatuses that don’t include school boards that can limit assault rifles and they’re doing nothing.”
On Tuesday morning, “out of an abundance of caution,” the East Hampton Town Police Department said in a statement, it “deployed teams of officers to each school to complete a thorough search and clear each building. We have been in constant contact with school district leadership and state and county police throughout this incident. Uniformed police officers have been deployed to the schools, and we are monitoring any further intelligence.”
Morning activities at the Springs School were canceled Tuesday as officers swept the building. They declared it safe for entry shortly after 7 a.m. and school opened for classes at the usual time. Debra Winter, the district superintendent, said in a message to parents early Tuesday that the threat appeared to be “similar to those issued around the country.”
“Safety is our number-one priority,” Ms. Winter said in her message, which noted that police officers would remain on campus throughout the school day. Students reported that their backpacks were checked as they entered the school for the day.
“We take threats of this nature very seriously,” she continued. “We will continue to work with law enforcement to determine the source of this email with hopes the perpetrator can be determined so consequences to the fullest extent of the law may be rendered.”
The Montauk and Sagaponack School Districts did not receive the anonymous threat, according to their superintendents, Jack Perna and Jay Finello, respectively. The Bridgehampton School District also did not receive it, said its superintendent, Mary Kelly.