Athens High School deals with school shooting hoax

By: Jensen Knecht
Posted on: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Athens High School, like schools in Hamilton, Clark, and Montgomery counties, received a shooting threat last week. Athens Principal Chad Springer said the threat was a potential student with a weapon.

“One of my contacts through the sheriff’s department called me on my cell phone and asked me, ‘Is there anything going on? Is there any problems up there?'” he said. “And I said no, and he said, ‘Well we just received a report of a threat.’ The area he described where the threat was at, I was literally 10 feet away from it.”

While thankfully no one follow through on the threats, the hoax significantly impacted the school.

Spring said he immediately sent a text to all high school parents to let them know busses were going to be delayed due to an active lockdown.

“We go into a lockdown, I tell everybody we are safe, that’s fine,” he said. “But then seeing multiple sheriffs coming on campus can be kind of threatening for some students and staff.”

As a result, Athens High School works with Hopewell, a health center that provides treatment for mental health services.

“I contacted our Hopewell person who actually comes here in house, making sure she was going to be here today and to make sure she had some time if we had some students who need to speak or staff to decompress,” he said. “And our school counselors were on hand and their schedules were free to help anybody who had questions.”

Springer also contacted all the students’ parents that were specifically targeted that evening to ensure their kids were safe and to encourage conversations with their parents.

More than five neighboring cities have received hoax threats throughout the state. As a result, the state is taking a look at the ongoing incidents.