BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

Several St. Lawrence County School districts are delayed this morning and one has closed due to threats of violence.

Massena, Canton, Lisbon and Madrid-Waddington are closed today following threats made to the district, and several other North Country schools are delayed.

“This morning, April 4, our district received an email containing a threat of violence against the school. This email was received by several districts in our region. We have notified police and are working with them to investigate this threat,” an email sent by Lisbon Central School said.

Schools delayed two hours include Gouverneur, Hermon-DeKalb, and the St. Lawrence County Head Start Program. Delayed three hours are Canton, Edwards-Knox, and Morristown districts.

Although the delays appear to be out of abundance of caution, rather than real danger, threats of bombings, schootings and violence have disrupted school operations and caused fear in the community for the second time in a week.

“We will have a 2-hour delay while we work with police to clear any potential danger. While these threats have become a significant disruption to our normal operations, we are simply unwilling to take any risks that may negatively impact the health and safety of our staff and students,” the email issued by LCS Superintendent Patrick Farrand said.

A broad problem

Across the state this morning, reports of similar threats and closures are being reported. And the exact number of local districts impacted remains unclear. The threat comes less than a week after a similar threat caused several St. Lawrence County Schools to lockdown on March 30.

The practice of falsely reporting such incidents is known as swatting and the scope and frequency of the practice seems to be growing.

A recent press release from Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe reported that law enforcement agencies received phone calls that active shooter March 30 reported incidents were occurring at three schools.

Last week law enforcement responded to each school, put them in lock down and tactically and meticulously cleared each school. It was determined quickly that the reports were completely unfounded and all students and staff were safe at each school. The delays today are likely related to similar action, though details have not been confirmed at this time.

Swatting is a harassment technique that involves calling 911 or other law enforcement agencies reporting a serious emergency (in these cases an active shooter incident) that are false reports or hoaxes. The Sheriffs Office as well as all law enforcement agencies take all calls of this nature as real incidents and serious no matter how dubious it seems.

The Sheriff’s Office can be reached at (315) 379-2222.