The Piedmont Police Department and PUSD said the school district appears to be the victim of a widespread “swatting” incident that led to the lockdown of Piedmont and Millennium High Schools and Piedmont Middle School around noon on Tuesday. Students were kept in classrooms and parents advised to stay away while the police department responded to the threat and cleared the campuses.
In updates posted on their social media account, the police department said:
**Update 12:46 pm** We have received an all-clear from units at the scene and after a thorough search, school campuses are resuming their school day as scheduled.
**Update 12:39 pm** We have information that several other schools in the Bay Area have received similar types of threats. It appears that this may be a widespread “Swatting” incident. Out of an abundance of caution, we are continuing with our investigation and the clearing of all buildings. At this time, there are no threats to any other Piedmont Schools. We will share additional information as it becomes available.
This morning, November 12, 2024, at 11:49 am dispatch received a call from Alameda County Behavior Health’s 988 call center advising they received a text reporting a male subject dressed in black and armed with an AR15 rifle in front of Piedmont High School threatening to shoot people in the area. Units were immediately dispatched to the scene and Piedmont High School, Piedmont Middle School, and Millennium High School were all put on lockdown while a systematic search of the locations is conducted. We are asking parents to stay away from the area while our investigation is in process. We will update this message as soon as we have more information to share.
Swatting is a form of harassment that has been used to target school districts, politicians, journalists and houses of worship. These hoax calls or threats made in online forums are designed to draw a large police presence to a target.