CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Less than a week after multiple Utah schools were inundated with fake calls claiming school shootings, police in Wyoming are responding to similar issues Monday.
Several Wyoming high school were placed under lockdown protocols early Monday after reports of shootings that turned out to be hoaxes.
Cheyenne police responded to a call at South High School after reports of a shooter inside a bathroom. Officers searched the building and found no threat.
"It appears similar unsubstantiated calls are being made to schools across the region," the department wrote on Facebook.
Police said all the hoax calls originated from a different area code, similar to how calls made to Utah on Wednesday are believed to have come from outside the U.S.
Natrona County High School in Casper was also placed on lockdown Monday after police received a shooting call, which like the rest, proved to be fake. The local school district said the school would remain on heightened awareness for the remainder of the day.
District communications said it received a call at 8:30 a.m. claiming an active shooter in Rock Springs High School in southwest Wyoming. Like the other schools, Rock Springs was placed on lockdown and searched by law enforcement officials who determined the call to be a hoax.
Days before Utah schools were victims of the fake calls, numerous schools in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were also plagued by hoaxes.
State and federal agencies believe one person was behind the fake active shooter calls in Utah schools. The Department of Public Safety says that one individual made all the calls and used the same storyline for each. The number came from an IP address that bounced around multiple countries, DPS explained, most of which were in western Europe.
