FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Safety is at the front of the minds of the Broward County School Board as discussions are ongoing about how to tackle threats coming from a troubling nationwide trend.
“In the spring, we noticed in our prior policy that when a swatting call would come in, that was actually a low-level risk to be a bomb threat schools were evacuating,” said Broward Safety and Security Officer Ernie Lozano.
Lozano says that’s no longer the case amid a procedural change that adjusts school response to bomb threats.
Back in November, two teen boys from out of state called in threats against Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines. The boys, along with one of their parents, were arrested last month.
The act is known as “swatting,” calling in hoax threats that lead to a real law enforcement response.
School leaders say evacuating schools every time a threat is called in is highly disruptive to learning.
“So what we started to do is work smarter and ensure that we were assessing the situation before we were making a decision,” said Lozano.
The procedure now involves working with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and school police to determine if a threat is a low medium or high risk to students. This has been in practice since the spring of 2024, but at the March school board meeting, members can make the recommendation to align official district policy with the updated procedure.
Lozano says the change is already making a difference.
“We’re already on just raw data feel like the number of calls were getting have reduced because people aren’t seeing us take that drastic action of going to a full evacuation,” he said.
Lozano said big responses like disruptive evacuations only encourage these so-called swatters. Broward School Board chair Lori Alhadeff agrees.
“We want to make sure that we’re assessing the situation before we are evacuating all of the students from their safe space in their classroom to outside in a very open area,” she said. “We take these threats very seriously. And by not overreacting and evacuating an entire campus I think there absolutely will be less threats that will be called in with these swatting calls.”