Two weeks after two Lometa ISD students reportedly had troubling discussions regarding “school violence and firearms,” the school went into lockdown Tuesday morning following the report of a threat.
Lampasas County Sheriff’s Office authorities said the threat may actually have been a “spoof.”
According to a parent notification issued on Tuesday at approximately 10:50 a.m., Lometa ISD officials initiated a lockdown “after receiving an email that included a threat of violence on campus.”
Officials lifted the lockdown at 11:06 a.m., returning the campus to regularly scheduled activities for the remainder of the day. Witnesses said law enforcement officers were still at the school at 12:40 p.m.
Sheriff Jess Ramos said his deputies and criminal investigators responded to the campus that morning after a report of an email sent by an unknown person and received by school officials “letting them know there was a gun at the school.” The email mentioned two Lometa ISD students by name.
During questioning, the two students claimed they were not aware of the email, Ramos said.
Ramos said that during the lockdown, LCSO deputies searched the students’ lockers and belongings as well as the campus and did not find any weapons. Afterward, Ramos talked with the students personally.
“It’s very possible someone spoofed their account,” Ramos said of the email sent to Lometa ISD officials.
Law enforcement agencies have experienced an increased number of “swatter” calls, Ramos said. Swatting is an act of criminal harassment that consists of making a false report or prank call to emergency personnel to draw a large response to a specific address.
“We’ll respond, and it may very well be somebody from Florida that has called in to get their kicks from us moving in on that,” the sheriff said. “It’s very common.”
Ramos added that one of the students’ parents was so adamant to prove her child’s innocence that she invited officers to search her home. Ramos conducted the search and found no weapons.
“It was clean all the way,” he said.
Law enforcement officials do not believe the two students named are at fault in this incident.
“At this time, we don’t have any reason to believe they were involved,” Ramos said. “They may even be the victims of this.”
It is unclear at this time whether the threat received was related to a previous incident that took place on the campus Jan. 19, or whether the threat was related to the same students.
“I don’t know if these kids were involved in that,” Ramos said.
‘SWATTING’
Ramos said there are ways law enforcement officials can learn the identity of an email sender. According to a July report by NBC News, the FBI has begun a database to track and prevent swatting.
Swatting pranks can have devastating effects. In 2017, 28-year-old Andrew Finch of Wichita, Kansas, was shot and killed by a Wichita police officer who didn’t know that a prankster had reported a false homicide and hostage situation at Finch’s home. In March 2019, Tyler Rai Barriss, the serial swatter responsible, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.
The prank reportedly was a retaliation on Finch after a “Call of Duty” online game between the man and several other players ended badly.
Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol also responded to the scene in Lometa.
Although Lometa ISD does not have a dedicated school resource officer, for several years the district has had a policy that allows teachers to carry concealed weapons on campus if they are properly permitted through the state.
PREVIOUS CONCERNS
In a similar incident Jan. 19, Lometa ISD officials said they received a report of two male students who “had discussed school violence and firearms.”
John Clawson, Lometa ISD assistant superintendent and campus behavior coordinator, told the Dispatch Record “to call it a threat would be inaccurate.” Clawson would not comment on the nature of the students’ discussion at that time.
Lometa School Principal Amanda Morris said she was a member of the district threat assessment team that convened to discuss the risk level of the January incident, and “at no time were our students in any danger.”
School officials stated in a message to parents that a Lampasas County sheriff’s deputy and a Lometa police officer visited with two students and their parents concerning the report, and that “law enforcement and the boys’ families are working together to employ the appropriate consequences and safeguards to ensure safety going forward.”
The last school in the Lampasas County area that went on lockdown was Taylor Creek Elementary in July 2022, when a high-speed chase between two armed suspects and local law enforcement officers took place on Big Divide Road, ending in a manhunt in the area.
Clawson, Lometa Police Chief Gabriella Pena and Lometa School Principal Amanda Morris were unavailable as of press time for comment on the most recent incident at the campus.