The automated call received in the office of Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford was actually a message related to something happening at a college campus in New York.
West Hartford Police responded to Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford on Friday after a disturbing message was received in the office. Photo credit: Ronni Newton
By Ronni Newton
West Hartford Police Chief Tracey Gove informed the Town Council Tuesday night that the department has now solved the mystery of the automated message received Friday at Solomon Schechter Day School that led to a soft lockdown and a response to a perceived threat by a large contingent of officers.
The automated message stated: “This is not a drill. There is someone on campus with a weapon,” and requested the recipient of the message to hit the star button to repeat the message. That’s what the person who answered the phone in the Solomon Schechter office did, and then the phone line went dead, police said.
The disturbing nature of the message warranted the response by police who treated it as an active incident and carefully checked and secured the building and grounds of the school’s West Hartford campus.
Gove said that officers continued to investigate after the school was deemed safe, and soon learned that a seemingly identical call had been received at a school in Amherst, MA at virtually the same time. “Sadly that day athere was a school shooting in Texas and we thought there might be a connection,” Gove said.
However, detectives eventually discovered that there had also been an incident at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, that day where there was a report of a person on campus with a gun. The school sent out an Everbridge message to all stakeholders, Gove said, including staff, faculty, students, and emergency contacts.
A staff member at Solomon Schechter has a child who is a student at Hamilton and used their work phone number as an emergency contact. The automated message failed to state the name of the school where the alleged person with a weapon was located, Gove said.
The gun turned out to be a nerf gun, Gove also said.
“The silver lining, I told the town manager, is that it gave us a chance to look at our response and see how they did,” Gove said. He said that police plan to meet with Solomon Schechter administration next week and discuss how the response was handled.
Gove said that he wanted to personally inform the Town Council, as well as the public, because there had been a great deal of concern regarding the incident. “I wanted the public to know this was a bad message, a very poor mistake made on behalf of the college,” Gove said.
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