Summit County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Troy Gawlak said no shots were fired and no injuries were een reported Tuesday after there were reports of multiple shooting victims at Coventry High School.
Gawlak confirmed that the school was swept and that no other details can be shared at this time.
Traffic access to the school at Portage Lakes Drive was blocked to the public. First responders from several neighboring communities were to sent to the scene to join Coventry authorities and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. Fire and EMS crews from Barberton, Green, New Franklin, Clinton, Lakemore and Lawrence Township in Stark County gathered at a staging area outside a church near the high school.
By 2 p.m., most of the emergency response teams had left that staging area, but access to the school remained restricted.
Sue Hennigin of Springfield Township said she was on her way to pick up her 11th grade granddaughter.
Hennigin received a text from her granddaughter in the school that said students were assembled in the gymnasium.
“She texted, saying ‘they are in lockdown. Nobody can get in, and nobody can get out.’ She said they are all safe and they’re in the gymnasium.”
Hennigin said she picks up her granddaughter two or three times a week. The 11th-grader’s mom, Hennigin said, had heard of the threat and was upset.
“Her mom’s in a panic,” she said.
A release from the sheriff’s office confirmed the incident was a hoax and said the agency received a call around 1 p.m. with reports of an active shooting.
At least two other similar hoaxes were reported Tuesday in Ohio. One at Olentangy High School in Lewis Center, Ohio near Columbus and one at Elder High School in Cincinnati. Similar reports surfaced Tuesday in Iowa.
It appears to be the latest swatting case in the area. “Swatting” is making a hoax call to law enforcement to deliberately cause a large police or SWAT team response. Sometimes, an individual does it to single out someone specific, but the calls can also be done in waves as a trend to seemingly random targets.