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Angleton ISD Knows Cause of Costly Prank
Friday, May 18, 2012
Over the past week, the Angleton ISD Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have collaborated in an extensive investigation of last week's bomb threat at Angleton High School, and through joint efforts the law enforcement agencies have identified six individuals from another country who are responsible for the threat.
According to AISD Police Chief James Gayle, the crime was done internationally over the Internet through Skype.
"The six people responsible called in through Skype and re-routed the phone through that website, doing what is called SWATTING and pranking," Gayle said.
Gayle says that "SWATTING" is a specific type of hi-tech pranking where people make fake calls designed to provoke a SWAT team type responses from law enforcement.
"At no time was anyone in danger, but this is a very serious crime that can cause many problems," Gayle said. "Besides the stress of the actual threat and the worry it brought, this incident cost the community and the school district a lot of money, time and resources."
According to AISD Superintendent Dr. Patricia Montgomery, the costs were immeasurable. She says the school district had to call bus drivers back in and pay them for several hours of work, the food being prepared for the high school was wasted, local emergency personnel were taken away from their other duties, AHS students lost a day of education, more than 200 students who were prepared to take the biology End of Course exam had to go through another day of testing, and a tremendous amount of parents who were concerned about their children's safety took off of work and lost pay.
"We are relieved to know that no AISD student was responsible for the prank and that no one was in any kind of real danger," Montgomery said. "However, the stress that this has caused is huge; so, this so-called 'prank' that brought a few laughs to a few kids in another country was in fact criminal and very costly to this community."
According to Gayle, the names of the individuals will not be released because doing so can affect the investigation.
"Authorities are continuing the investigation as it carries overseas," he said. "The AISD Police Department and the FBI are notifying the appropriate authorities who have jurisdiction of this crime."
Montgomery warns parents about these types of pranks that are being done with the help of technology.
"While this happened in another country, this type of behavior is becoming more frequent throughout our country, and parents must be aware that our children are more technologically advanced than we are and must ask questions and see where their children are going on the Internet," Montgomery said.
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