ELY- Students and staff at Washington Elementary were sent into lockdown here on Tuesday after an unidentified person told county authorities he was armed and outside the school, intending to harm students.
The call, made to St. Louis County dispatch at 11:50 a.m., appears to have been a hoax, although the Ely Police Department advised the lockdown until that could be confirmed. Meanwhile, schools in Duluth and Eveleth had received similar threatening phone calls about the same time.
The Ely PD responded to the school assisted by the Babbitt PD, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Border Patrol. Law enforcement quickly cleared the school and determined there was no active threat present. The Ely PD posted officers at the school for the remainder of the day as a precaution, however they believe that there was no legitimate threat to staff or students.
It is currently believed the threat received by the Washington Elementary School and other schools in the region were not credible and it appears that they originated from out-of-state.
“It is believed these were ‘swatting’ incidents which is the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers, such as a SWAT team, to a particular address,” said Ely Police Chief Chad Houde in a statement issued just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.