San Francisco police spent Wednesday morning chasing down threats reported at several schools across the city, including one that sent Town School for Boys on Jackson Street into a lockdown before officers determined there was no immediate danger. The investigation is ongoing, and police say it is not an isolated incident.
What Happened at Town School
According to ABC7 Bay Area, police were investigating possible threats reported Wednesday morning at several San Francisco schools, and Town School for Boys went into lockdown because of the reports. Officers responded to the campus and determined there was no immediate threat, the outlet reported, though the broader investigation remains active.
Parents at other schools across the city told the station that their campuses also received threats that same morning, though the report does not specify how many schools were affected or confirm every campus involved. Separately, San Francisco police confirmed that several schools in the area received similar threats within the past week, suggesting Wednesday's reports were not a one-off event.
A Pattern Stretching Across the Bay Area
A separate set of incidents on October 12, 2022, involved active-shooter threats at multiple Bay Area high schools, which a law enforcement official described as likely swatting, per KRON4. In that 2022 incident, South San Francisco High School was temporarily placed on lockdown after one such report, with the lockdown lifted by 11 a.m. once the threat was found to have no merit. That day, the San Francisco Unified School District said George Washington High also received an active-shooter threat, but officials determined it had no merit and never imposed a lockdown.
Authorities had not determined whether the incidents described in KRON4's October 12, 2022, report were connected, KRON4 reported. The uncertainty echoes a similar scare from October 2022, when six Bay Area schools — including George Washington High, South San Francisco High, Woodside High, McClymonds High in Oakland, Irvington High in Fremont and Lincoln High in San Jose — received swatting calls falsely claiming an active shooter was on campus, according to an earlier ABC7 report that called swatting a nationwide trend built around fake emergency calls meant to trigger a massive police response.
Earlier Case Shows Threats Can Lead to Charges
San Francisco has dealt with this kind of disruption before. Back in May, a 41-year-old man was charged with multiple felonies in connection with threats against several San Francisco schools, the station's report noted, with the first of those threats occurring on May 11 against a primary school in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. It is not known whether Wednesday's threats are related to that earlier case.
Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto once evacuated about 250 students and staff after a bomb threat that police later determined was unsubstantiated, according to J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
San Francisco police have not said when they expect the current investigation into this week's threats to conclude.
