Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

OGDEN — On learning of a lockdown Wednesday morning at Ogden High School, where his granddaughter studies, Bob Zamonas quickly made his way to the school.

His granddaughter, a senior, reported that Ogden officers were in the school with guns, telling students to stay quiet and to lock the doors to their classrooms. Turns out the school was the victim of some sort of “hoax related to school violence,” the Ogden School District said, and on learning the news — repeated at schools across Utah and beyond on Wednesday — Zamonas could only shake his head.

Yes, he was relieved. An anonymous caller to Weber County dispatchers had falsely asserted there was “an active shooter” at the school. But that wasn’t the end of it. “It makes me sad and mad this is the world we live in now,” he said.

He referenced the deadly shooting on Monday at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, that left six dead and the ease with which bad actors, even if they don’t take action, can “just turn our world upside down with a phone call.”

Ogden High School was the target of some sort of threat of violence on Wednesday, causing concern, a temporary lockdown and a heavy police presence at the school until authorities cleared the facility. Police entered the facility to check into the reports and, when complete, finding nothing, students streamed out early for the day.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

“Ogden High School has been cleared by police and there is no threat. The call of the active shooter threat was not substantiated,” the Ogden Police Department said in a Facebook post. Students were released for the day once the building was cleared.

The Ogden School District sent out a similar message. “Ogden High School was the victim of an unsubstantiated alert related to school violence today. No students have been harmed. Ogden Police are at the school and are clearing the building strictly as a precaution,” the district said in a Facebook post.

Ogden wasn’t alone. Similar threats, unsubstantiated, went out on Wednesday targeting Spanish Fork and Provo high schools, according to officials at the schools. Callers also targeted West High School in Salt Lake City and Box Elder High School in Brigham city, falsely reporting ongoing violence at the schools.

Box Elder High School “was placed on a brief lockdown while officers investigated the threat. Officers on the scene were able to determine that there were no actual threats and that the call had originated elsewhere,” the Brigham Police Department said in a Facebook post. “Several agencies across the state of Utah and possibly across the nation received similar calls.”

False calls about active shooters also went out to more than 20 schools in Massachusetts on Tuesday, Boston.com reported, and to two schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, TribLive.com said.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

“How sad I am that our country has gotten to this point where we think this kind of thing is OK,” Mark Johnson, the chief administrative officer for Ogden, said at a press conference later Wednesday with Ogden School District, Ogden Police Department and Ogden Fire Department representatives. “I’m impressed with how the students have handled it, impressed how the teachers (have handled it), but I think that they’re traumatized.

Lane Findlay, spokesperson for Weber School District, said no schools in that system were targeted by false calls of shootings. However, a “handful” of Weber School District schools implemented “secure protocol” policies temporarily on Wednesday in response to the Ogden High School situation, he added.

‘I WAS A LITTLE NERVOUS’

Ogden Police Capt. Tim Scott said at the press conference that the events Wednesday started with a call around 9:30 a.m. to Weber County dispatchers indicating — falsely it turns out — that there was an active shooter at Ogden High School. “That caller reported that there were shots fired and several students were down and injured by gunfire,” he said.

A school resource officer assigned to Ogden High School immediately put the school on lockdown and police and firefighters immediately converged on the facility. Officers from across Weber County assisted, with police cars, fire trucks and more parked around the school.

Authorities eventually determined the call was a hoax, but before that, SWAT and other officers “were actively hunting what they believed was an active target,” clearing rooms one by one with long guns, Scott said. Officials were also monitoring activity at the school via cameras inside of it.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

After the all-clear, students started streaming out of the high school shortly after 10:30 a.m., an hour after the call came in.

“I was a little nervous,” said Charlie Geiss, one of the departing students. He said he and his classmates crowded into into a closet in their classroom.

Ian Swanson, another student, said he and a handful of others hid out in a room with a table barricading the door. “We just stayed back behind the door where you can’t see,” he said.

Parents and others were on hand outside the school, nervously waiting until word spread that the reports of violence were false. Amanda Lovell, the mother of an OHS junior, was among them. Her daughter had texted her, saying she was in the basement of the school “and had to be quiet.”

Zamonas, grandfather of a senior, showed the early text his granddaughter had sent as the situation unfolded.

“I don’t know why, but we’re on lockdown now,” she wrote. Police with guns, she went on, were giving instructions as they traversed the halls for students and others to stay quiet and keep in place inside classrooms.

Ogden School District Superintendent Luke Rasmussen said at the press conference that he’s grateful no one was injured or hurt and thanked first responders. Trauma teams were available and will be available, he said, to help students, staff and others who may need support.

“My hope is that the good citizens of our community will have a prayer in our heart for them to be able to recover from this kind of trauma that they’ve been through,” said Johnson, the city administrator.

Johnson also lauded first responders for entering the high school with “no hesitation” to investigate the threats, initially not knowing the call prompting their presence was a hoax. “I want you to know that if there was a hoax tomorrow, we would respond the exact same way we responded today. We want parents and students to know this is our top priority. We will respond every time and make sure that everyone is safe.”

Scott, the police captain, said investigators are looking into the original false call that prompted the lockdown and school search, working with federal officials.

Rasmussen said in the wake of the incident, school officials will take another look at security protocols and protections in schools. The Ogden Police Department assigns school resources officers to the district’s two high schools and three junior high schools.

“We have great systems in place there, including security systems. But it’s always something we will evaluate. We’ll take this … as an opportunity to learn and be better going forward, for sure,” Rasmussen said.

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