This was a lesson learned out of school.
A 15-year-old girl is facing a fourth-degree felony charge of causing false public alarm after she was charged in a “swatting” prank at William Shemin Midtown Community School Monday, authorities said.
The girl, whose name was not released because she is a minor, was arrested just hours after students and staff at the school were ordered to shelter in place and roadways around the school were closed for approximately one hour as a precaution.
The penalty for an adult convicted of causing false public alarm is up to 18 months in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
The threat made against the pre-K through eighth-grade elementary school, which serves approximately 1,200 students, was made at 9:57 a.m., Bayonne police Capt. Eric Amato said.
Officers immediately conducted an investigation into the threat and determined it to be a case of swatting, a dangerous prank in which someone anonymously calls police with a fictitious threat or emergency situation.
At no time was the safety of any student, faculty member or general public at risk, Amato said. Authorities did not say if the girl is a student at the school, or how the threat was conveyed to the school district.
