Governor requests analysis in hoax school shooting threats

Image: RCSD responds to Blythewood H.S. after reports of an active shooter on the campus October 5, 2022. Deputies say the report was later determined to be a hoax.

Image: RCSD responds to Blythewood H.S. after reports of an active shooter on the campus October 5, 2022. Deputies say the report was later determined to be a hoax.

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO)– In a letter to SLED chief Mark Keel, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office says the governor requested that the agency work with law enforcement and schools to analyze the response to a string of threatening phone calls placed to schools across the state Wednesday.

Governor Henry McMaster says in the letter, “I believe this situation provides our state’s law enforcement agencies with a rare opportunity to learn from this unprecedented incident; to learn what worked best and what can be improved upon.”

On Wednesday more than a dozen schools from Charleston to Greenville received calls saying a either shots had been fired or a school shooting was going to  happen.

Richland Co. Sheriff Leon Lott says the false calls were part of a Tik Tok social media challenge.

Lott says anyone arrested in connection with the hoax will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.