Illinois State Police is reporting local law enforcement in 19 counties received a total of 21 calls making threats toward schools, including Salem, Centralia, and Mt. Vernon High Schools.
The Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center has not located any actual threats as a result of the calls. However, they are encouraging law enforcement, public safety, and private sector security officials to remain vigilant and report all suspicious behavior to local police agencies.
While state and national intelligence agencies have seen a pattern of these fake calls, referred to as swatting, each call is taken seriously.
Centralia Police Lieutenant Steve Whritenour says at 9:45 Wednesday morning, the department received a call on the non-emergency line of an active shooter at Centralia High School. All units responded along with Central City, Wamac, Illinois State Police, and the Illinois Secretary of State Police.
The Centralia High School Resource Officer was on campus and immediately notified the principal and locked down the school. A systematic search of the school was conducted and the all-clear was given at 10:02 am. The high school remained on soft lockdown the rest of the day with extra officers conducting patrols of the high school throughout the day.
Whritenour says they are working with state and federal agencies to trace the source of the call as are other police agencies around Southern Illinois who received similar active shooter calls.
The Centralia Police Department is thanking the other police departments for their quick response and commending the Centralia High School staff and student body for their response by following protocol throughout this incident.
In Salem, Police Chief Kyle Ambuehl says the Marion County 911 Coordinator received an active shooter threat for Salem Community High School on her work cell phone. The school resource officer was contacted and indicated the school was in a testing process and everything was quiet. Ambuehl says they then checked the perimeter of the SCHS buildings and then checked both the public and private grade schools in the city as an extra precaution. He emphasizes none of the other schools had received a threat.
Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps says while no threats were made against any of the rural schools in the county, they were notified of the false threats in other locations. Deputies were also sent to some of the schools for extra patrols.
Farina Police Chief Vernon Rose says while no threats were received about South Central High School, the school remained on soft lockdown all day with students not being able to come and go as usual.
