By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
A pair of back-to-back “swatting” calls to the Riverside Elementary School and to the Johnson Park School kept police officers busy Monday morning, according to the Princeton Police Department.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Riverside Elementary School officials received a generalized threat to harm the school and its students, police said. One hour later, at 11:08 a.m., a similar call was received by Johnson Park School officials. The schools were immediately put on “lockdown” status, which means no one could enter or leave the building.
In both instances, the threats were phoned in to the schools by a computer-generated male voice, police said. The threats were similar in nature to the ones that have been received by several schools in the Princeton Public Schools district in recent weeks.
Monday morning, police officers were sent to the Riverside Elementary School and then to the Johnson Park School. The officers searched both schools thoroughly, inside and outside of the buildings, but found nothing amiss, police said.
Police officers continued to make security checks on the schools throughout the day.
The “swatting” calls Monday morning were the sixth and seventh ones made to the Princeton public schools since April 28. The Riverside and Johnson Park elementary schools had been targeted by earlier “swatting” calls.
“Swatting” involves contacting an individual or an institution with a false report designed to draw a heightened response from a police department or its SWAT team. The call can be generated from another state or another country.
