{"id":1577,"date":"2025-08-26T16:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2025-08-26T16:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:27:56","slug":"colleges-across-the-country-deal-with-shooting-hoaxes-as-classes-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=1577","title":{"rendered":"Colleges across the country deal with shooting hoaxes as classes resume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least a half-dozen universities across the country welcomed students to first-day-of-fall classes Monday with run-and-hide warnings about possible gunmen on campus.<\/p>\n<p>In almost all the cases, police and administrators said the reports were hoaxes or swatting calls, which is when someone uses temporary cellphone numbers and voice-cloaking apps to create havoc. A few campuses said simply that no evidence of a gunman or violence was found.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"College shooting hoaxes across the U.S.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vSEvkQPT_yc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The reports were sent to students at the University of Arkansas, University of Colorado Boulder, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, the University of New Hampshire and Northern Arizona University, according to student alerts and school statements.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, according to campus officials, the University of South Carolina received two reports of an active shooter at Thomas Cooper Library in Columbia on Sunday night, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga received a hoax active shooter call on Aug. 21, and Villanova University near Philadelphia received two false active shooter reports during freshman orientation last week.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-lightbox\" data-lightbox-src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/jLi_V0DqQfM4l336RPZRqg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/c64ae28bd762f65536ee17ba3b8e97f1\"><span class=\"caas-img-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/js5hjwmkek8Q7B2PIXbNXw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/c64ae28bd762f65536ee17ba3b8e97f1\" alt=\"Students at Villanova University were alerted to an active shooter situation on campus (NBC Philadelphia)\" data-caas-lazy-loading-init=\"1\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\">\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\" data-id=\"m-0\">Students at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., were alerted to an active shooter situation on campus on Thursday. (NBC Philadelphia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The University of Arkansas canceled classes Monday after it determined that reports of &#8220;active threats&#8221; could not be confirmed. &#8220;Students are free to leave campus at this time if desired,&#8221;\u00a0university police said.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas State University\u00a0described a false report\u00a0Monday at its Manhattan campus as &#8220;similar to other swatting reports happening at universities across the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>University of South Carolina police said in a statement Monday that both false reports Sunday night appeared to have been made by the same male and that they triggered a massive response that included &#8220;mutual aid,&#8221; or officers from surrounding communities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Both calls were initiated by an unknown male and included background noise that mimicked gunfire,&#8221; police said.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Arizona University said in a statement that a caller reported a gunman Monday at Cline Library on its Flagstaff Mountain Campus, triggering a response that included Flagstaff police, Coconino County sheriff&#8217;s deputies and state and federal agents.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The report was determined to be a hoax, and at no time was there an active threat to the NAU community,&#8221; the university said in a statement. &#8220;An investigation is underway into the false report, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-lightbox\" data-lightbox-src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/vrTjlhh9odD4aecTe7qIzg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xNjAwO2NmPXdlYnA-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/4710690f184eb49ed0d4c2ac1a1d0a83\"><span class=\"caas-img-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview caas-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/xwr8Jovxplu0L5b2MiL76w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nbc_news_122\/4710690f184eb49ed0d4c2ac1a1d0a83\" alt=\"University of Arkansas Reported Shooting (Michael Woods \/ AP)\" data-caas-lazy-loading-init=\"1\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\">\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\" data-id=\"m-1\">University of Arkansas students and employees evacuate and take shelter on Aug. 25, 2025, in Fayetteville, Ark., as police respond to reports of a shooting. (Michael Woods \/ AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An FBI spokesperson said the bureau was aware of many of the reported incidents and was helping with investigations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The FBI continues to work with state and local partners to investigate the swatting hoaxes but cannot say at this stage whether or not the incidents are connected,&#8221; the bureau said.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the earliest swatting incidents in the 2010s involved false shooting reports at the\u00a0homes of celebrities, and in recent years, they have expanded to include\u00a0politicians\u00a0and institutions. The FBI created a\u00a0national database\u00a0to track such fake calls.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, authorities alleged\u00a0a California teenager\u00a0carried out hundreds of swatting calls that targeted historically Black colleges, high schools, the homes of FBI agents and\u00a0a Florida mosque\u00a0in a spree he ultimately admitted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECTION<\/strong>\u00a0(Aug. 25, 2025, 11:06 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misidentified one of the schools that received a false shooting report. It was the University of Colorado Boulder, not Colorado State University Boulder.<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on\u00a0NBCNews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least a half-dozen universities across the country welcomed students to first-day-of-fall classes Monday with run-and-hide warnings about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,12,7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic","category-crime","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1579,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1577\/revisions\/1579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}