WASHINGTON – Since June 2015, the Enlarged Middletown City School District has received 15 “swatting” calls – active shooter and bomb threat calls that all proved bogus.
Police, FBI and school district officials have had their hands tied to a degree by an FCC regulation that prohibits carriers from passing the calling party number to the called party where a privacy request has been made by the caller.
The school district asked for a waiver of the rule so that officials could dig deeper in their investigation to protect the safety of the 7,500 school children and 700 employees.
The FCC on Wednesday waived the rule noting the school district said children are unable to access their medications during multi-hour lockdowns, and that parents indicated that the impact of the threatening calls that necessitate lockdown procedures have emotionally traumatized many children.
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney and US Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand all lobbied the FCC to grant the waiver.
Maloney said it’s time to track down the perpetrator.
“Now the important thing is to catch the people who have been terrorizing the community. By getting this waiver we will be able to trace the numbers who have been placing these calls and hopefully bring these people to justice,” Maloney said.
Schumer said in a statement Wednesday night that the school district “has suffered these horrifying ‘swatting’ attacks for far too long.” He said those who have been “terrorizing the city will no longer be allowed to hide in the shadows.”
Among the conditions of the waiver is that authorities can only access restricted calling party number data when investigating phone calls of a threatening and serious nature.
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