Content warning: This article discusses gun violence.
There is a new, troubling trend on college campuses: Swatting.
The Department of Homeland Security defines swatting as “making malicious hoax calls to emergency services to falsely report an ongoing emergency, such as a violent crime or explosive device at a certain location.”
This back-to-school season was rung in with dozens of swatting reports on campuses across the country. More recently, in the middle of this month, swatting up ticked once again, this time targeting HBCUs in seemingly politically and racially motivated attacks.
In general, however, swatting has been on the rise. Reports of swatting against schools have increased 546% from 2018, with 446 incidents reported during the 2022-2023 school year.
Swatting causes mass panic and confusion, most often resulting in students being put in lockdown and institutions issuing scaring active shooter alerts. Ultimately, they dissolve students’ sense of security and possibly their faith in the systems that are supposed to protect them.
Thankfully, Gen Z’s prior school experience has prepared us for this unfamiliar challenge of college. We were helpfully trained on finding the best hiding spots and how to fight an assailant, smushed between multiplication and grammar lessons.
Students in our generation delve out lockdown stories like trading cards, coolly sharing stories of students huddled in closets and teachers armed with staplers.
We are frightfully desensitized to gun violence, which is probably in response to our intense exposure at an early age and a generally blasé reaction from politicians.
We recently saw threats against St. Bonaventure University plastered across social media.Â
In the midst of these threats, rumors circulated of a shooter on campus among students and parents, and we all went about our days hoping for the best.Â
Within one week, my parents alarmingly contacted all three of their children after seeing reports of an active shooter on our respective campuses.
Shortly after our scare, a similar situation unfolded at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, resulting in a campus-wide lockdown. Later, after hours of uncertainty, the university issued a statement, calling the reports of a gunman on campus a “false alarm.”
This should not be normal.
It is a dystopian reality in which psychological violence is brandished against higher education institutions, targeting students and professors through these terroristic acts. Pursuing higher education should not put someone at inherent risk of gun violence.Â
College should be about growth and discovery, not fear.Â
Talking about swatting, acknowledging its impact, and demanding accountability are small but necessary steps toward change. We deserve to feel safe on our campuses—and we must keep insisting on it.