Lee County schools put on alert after ‘swatting’ prank

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WWSB) - An apparent prank call caused a search of every school in Lee County Friday afternoon, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.

At least one school, South Fort Myers High School, was put in lockdown for a short time.

According to notices on the sheriff’s Twitter account, at about 1 p.m., authorities received a call regarding an active shooter at South Fort Myers High. After responding to the call and a search of the school, it was determined to be a hoax.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno said that according to the Florida Fusion Center, which shares information with law enforcement homeland security agencies, there have been a number of “swatting” calls affecting schools around the country.

Neither Sarasota or Manatee county school officials have indicated they were affected.

“Swatting” is the action of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to garner a large number of law enforcement to a specific location.

Marceno said on Twitter that out of an abundance of caution, all schools in Lee County were searched and determined there were no threats.