May 10, 2023 by Elijah N’dolo (‘24)
In the weeks following the killing of six people in the mass shooting of a Christian private school in Nashville, Kentucky, on March 27, hundreds of police departments across the country received anonymous calls in which human or automated voices claimed that an active shooting was taking place in the local school. But after quick and appropriate reactions from the police departments, the officers would come to realize that no such shooting was taking place. Among the extensive list of schools affected by these hoax calls is Saratoga Springs High School, which received a similar call on March 30th.
Of the individuals responsible for safety on the Saratoga Springs High School campus, Officer Glenn Barett is undoubtedly the most well-known and beloved. Since accepting his role as School Resource Officer in 2020, Officer Barrett has become a bit of a celebrity in Toga’s hallways. On the morning of March 30th, Officer Barrett was notified by his dispatch that counties around Saratoga County were receiving “swatting calls” containing false reports of school shootings. He promptly sent a message to the school’s administration to bring awareness to the situation and to explain that Saratoga Springs High School had not received any calls. “Within five minutes of that, we received a call at the station,” Officer Barrett explained, “saying that there was a situation at the high school in ‘Wing 2’. We don’t have a Wing 2, so we started putting the pieces of the puzzle together…”
Officer Barrett and the other officers on sight immediately checked the live-feed security camera footage of both inside the building and on the campus surrounding the building. “We checked and swept the area,” Barrett said, “ and ultimately realized there was nothing, but we sheltered in place while we made sure that we were right and there was no incident here.” Barret continued, “We knew there had been other calls throughout the Capital District, but we always want to respond like it’s real anyways.” Originally the protocol had been for the officers to secure the perimeter and wait for a SWAT team to arrive (hence the term swatting call), but after the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999, officers were trained to immediately remove the threat.
Other cities around Saratoga Springs were affected in similar ways over the next few days. The following Tuesday, the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office was informed of a social media message received by a Ballston Spa High School student claiming that an active shooting would occur that day. The high school and middle school were put in a shelter-in-place, and the elementary school closed for the rest of the day while police officers confirmed that there was no such shooting. Officer Barrett’s advice for the future is to take drills seriously, stay calm, and respect the lockdowns and hold-in-places. He also suggests reporting any suspicious behavior on the anonymous and free-to-use school safety application and website: Safe School Helpline. On this app, students can anonymously report any potential threats or harmful acts to a trained professional without speaking a single word. If using this website is not a possibility, students can call the Saratoga Non-Emergency hotline at (518)584-1800, or in the case of an emergency, call 911. Barrett also highly recommends making as many connections with other students as possible to be able to hear about an inside threat and report it so it can be taken care of before it even happens.