BY STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—It’s a phone call all parents fear these days: there’s an active shooter at their children’s school. On Wednesday, February 8, that call came into the Brandon Police Department. A man with a “foreign” accent claimed that two children had been shot in an English class at Otter Valley Union High School (OVUHS). Brandon Police Department (BPD) Chief David Kachajian was the sole officer on duty. He called for backup and sped down to the scene.
This scenario has played out horrifically over and over across the United States over the last few decades. This particular case, fortunately, turned out to be a sick prank. There was no shooter. There were no injured children.
Chief Kachajian sent out a press release:
“On Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at around 9:15 a.m. the Brandon Police Department received a call from an unidentified male with a “Middle Eastern/Indian” sounding accent reporting that two children had been shot in an English class room at the Otter Valley Union High School in the Town of Brandon. The on-duty officer for the Brandon Police requested additional back-up from area law enforcement agencies and then responded to the school. Entry was immediately made to locate any possible threats that may be present. A short time later, officers from the Vermont State Police, Pittsford Police Department, Rutland Town Police Department as well as Brandon Area Rescue arrived on-scene to assist with clearing the building and in-case there were any injuries.
The building was in lockdown at the time and the entire school complex was searched and cleared. The school was subsequently taken out of lock down after determining that there was no threat to the staff or students. It was later determined that the call had been fraudulent and that the caller was perpetrating a hoax by “SWATTING”. “SWATTING” is the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.
These calls appear to be associated with ongoing nationwide hoax phone threats of school shootings, bomb threats, etc. and it was later determined that multiple locations across the State of Vermont received identical calls of a similar nature at around the same time that the call came in for the Otter Valley Union High School.
The Brandon Police Department would like to extend our sincere thank you to the Vermont State Police, Pittsford Police Department, Rutland Town Police Department, and Brandon Area Rescue for their immediate response and assistance at the Otter Valley Union High School. We would also like to commend the staff at the High School for making sure that the proper safety precautions were taken as well as locking down the school immediately to ensure the safety of the students and staff that were present.”
There were many statements of gratitude to first responders on social media. There were calls online for increased police presence at OVUHS. There were arguments against increased police presence as well. Jeff Haylon, who now resides in Brandon but is originally from Newtown, Connecticut—the site of the Sandy Hook school shooting 10 years ago—took to Front Porch Forum to caution against letting the high emotions of the situation drive our response:
“I completely understand the desire to feel safer by having increased police presence, but it’s important to not jump to a knee-jerk reaction with long-term implications for the town. The issue of school shootings, both real and hoax, is one that will not be solved by band-aid fixes like additional officers.”
Whatever the best long-term response to the threat of school shootings, our first responders proved themselves able to react swiftly. Hopefully they will never need to be tested by anything more than a hoax.
