An unknown male caller phoned in a threat against The Gardner School in Rosslyn just before 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, sending Arlington County police officers rushing to the private preschool at 1717 Clarendon Blvd to help manage dismissal while they worked to determine whether the threat was credible.
The call was logged in a police dispatch report detailed by ARLnow, which first identified the exact timing and the caller's description. By 3:30 p.m., the Arlington County Police Department issued a social media update confirming officers remained on scene evaluating the threat's credibility while assisting with student dismissal, and that no evidence of a crime had been found, according to Daily Voice.
The Gardner School of Arlington is not a K-12 campus but a private early learning center serving children as young as 6 weeks old through age 5, spanning infant, toddler, preschool and Pre-K programs, per Winnie. That distinction matters: unlike a public school district operating under centralized security protocols, a private early childhood facility coordinates its own emergency response, even as it faces the same category of threat that has rattled Arlington's public schools in recent months.
A Felony Under Virginia Law
Communicating a threat to kill or to discharge a firearm on the grounds of any elementary, middle, or secondary school is classified as a Class 6 felony under Virginia Code § 18.2-60, carrying a potential sentence of up to five years in prison. The statute underscores why Arlington police treat even unverified phone calls targeting school campuses as urgent matters requiring an immediate, visible response, rather than waiting to confirm the threat before deploying officers.
Tuesday's response fits a pattern that has repeated across Arlington this year. In June, Wakefield High School was placed under a Secure-the-Building order after a telephone threat came in shortly after dismissal, triggering a response from the police bomb squad and a K-9 unit, as Hoodline previously reported. And in September, a 19-year-old man pleaded guilty to felony charges of threatening to bomb a place of assembly after making online bomb threats against Yorktown High School in Arlington and two schools in Loudoun County.
Part Of A Broader Pattern
Arlington schools have faced a string of security scares this year beyond phone threats. In February, police conducted precautionary building sweeps at Washington-Liberty High School and Abingdon Elementary School after ammunition was recovered at both campuses during the same week. Just days before Tuesday's incident, phone threats to kill students prompted lockdowns at two Virginia Beach middle schools, illustrating that the pattern extends well beyond Arlington's borders.
Federal authorities have taken notice of the broader trend. The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice issued joint guidance in September warning educational institutions nationwide about a rise in anonymous swatting calls and fake active shooter threats designed to trigger emergency police deployments. An August FBI Public Service Announcement similarly flagged that false emergency reports and swatting calls increasingly target educational centers, causing panic and pulling public safety resources away from genuine emergencies.
Virginia law also requires school divisions and educational facilities to complete annual safety audits and maintain active threat assessment protocols under Virginia Code § 22.1-279.8, a regulatory framework meant to systematically evaluate potential risks across the state's campuses. As of Tuesday afternoon, officers had found no evidence of a crime at The Gardner School, and the investigation into the source of the call remained ongoing.
