BETHESDA, Md. — Within 24 hours, Montgomery County Police have responded to three bogus threats at Bethesda schools, disrupting classes and scaring parents.
Just before 12:30 p.m. Friday, Walt Whitman High School was evacuated and MCPD officers were called to the school to investigate a reported threat. By 1:20 p.m. police put out notice that the school was secured, classes resume, and the threat was deemed unfounded.
"As a parent obviously, it's nerve-wracking and concerning," Walt Whitman parent Saurabh Shukla said of the threat causing his daughter to evacuate school. "God forbid it is a real threat, because you can't ignore any threat or a dangerous situation like this."
Less than an hour later, a similar call came in at Bethesda Elementary School two miles away. The school was put under a brief lockdown, but was given the "all clear" quickly and the threat again called unfounded within 15 minutes.
Friday's threats came a day after Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, also in Montgomery County, was locked down and evacuated due to a reported threat that prompted a massive police response including the SWAT team.
Police audio obtained by WUSA9 indicated that the caller said he had an AR-15 as well as a pipe bomb inside the school. After an hours-long investigation, the threat was also determined to be unfounded, according to police.
“Because of the caller and the conversation between the officer and the caller, they decided to make this an ERT (Emergency Response Team), where they call in swat," Shiera Goff, The Montgomery County Police Department Public Information Officer said. "That’s our emergency response team and that’s why we responded the way we did and it’s always as an abundance of caution."
Ahead of the school year, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones sent a warning regarding the growing number of false threats.
"Stop. If you want to go play games, go play a video game, but don't play with people's lives," the chief said.
Jones said some of the fake threats in the county have been made by people outside of Maryland, but other cases involve local students trying to get out of class.
"If we would be so fortunate to discover who these people are we would definitely be pushing to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," Jones added.
Montgomery County Police says that warning still stands as the school year comes to an end.
The FBI has also started tracking these swatting cases. Just a couple days ago, they arrested an 18-year-old from Ohio who they say was behind of several of these fake threats in different states.
As for the three cases in Montgomery County this week, no arrests have been made.
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