The threat at Grant High School was high

GRANT, Mich. (WOOD) — Police in Grant say the local high school was the target of a hoax threat Thursday, one of several going around the country.

On Thursday, a third-party crisis response line received a report of “an unknown male standing outside Grant High School with an AR-15 rifle, preparing to enter the school,” Grant police said in a news release . Police learned of the reported threat around 11:55 a.m

As a precaution, all Grant Public Schools were placed on “secure mode” – a safety measure for potential external threats in which doors are locked and everyone remains indoors – as authorities investigated. Police say they have not seen any sign of the reported suspect and that no school has seen a suspicious person enter. Just to be sure, officers say they searched every school in the district. They found no threats, so the schools were released, according to the release.

Grant police say the original call was traced to an IP address originating outside the country. According to police, the IP address was also used in at least thirteen other calls across the United States, all occurring at the same time.

“In each of these incidents, the reported threat was the same, with only the name of the alleged suspect changing,” the news release said.

Police called it a swatting incident, which they described as “a dangerous hoax designed to provoke an emergency response to a fabricated threat.”

The Grant Police Department says it is sharing information with the FBI and the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center so they can investigate.

Newaygo public schools said so in a social media post that it also went into safe mode on Thursday, noting that the move was taken out of an abundance of caution and that there was “no credible threat.” On Thursday around 1:20 p.m., the district was no longer in safe mode. It was not clear if the situation at Newaygo Public Schools was related to the swatting incident targeting Grant High School.

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