Atlanta, Georgia: Phone Threats Lock Down Metro Schools for the Second Time This Week, All Cleared

Phone threats locked down at least four metro Atlanta schools on Wednesday morning, November 11, the second time this week that calls have sealed classrooms across the city. Police swept each campus and found no weapons and no explosive devices. No students or staff were hurt, and every lockdown was lifted by early afternoon.

The hardest threat hit Marist School in Brookhaven

Marist School, a Catholic school in Brookhaven, received its call at about 9:50 a.m. The school told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the caller threatened "an armed assailant approaching campus as well as bombs on campus." Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said the initial report alleged that a person or people in the parking lot had a rifle and that explosive devices had been placed around the school.

Officers from Brookhaven, DeKalb County, Chamblee and Dunwoody responded to the campus at about 10 a.m. and searched it. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that the lockdown was lifted early Wednesday afternoon after the sweep found no threats. Just after 12:30 p.m., Marist communications director Cristina Vasconez Herrera told families in an email: "There was not an active threat, and we have just received an 'all clear.'"

Atlanta public high schools locked down too

Atlanta Public Schools confirmed that Midtown High School and North Atlanta High School received anonymous threatening phone calls on Wednesday morning and went into lockdown. At North Atlanta High, Atlanta police and district police swept the building room by room. Principal Angela Mitchell asked parents to stay away from the campus and not to call their children or the school front offices, so phone lines stayed clear while officers worked.

The district said students and staff remained safe while the schools were searched, and Atlanta Public Schools lifted its high school lockdowns before noon. In Cobb County, Campbell High School went into a brief lockdown after a phone threat of its own. District investigators found no credible threat there, and the school returned to normal operations. Carver High School in Atlanta also locked down on Wednesday, but for a different reason: police were searching for a suspect nearby, and that lockdown was lifted quickly.

Police suspect a swatting call from out of state

Chief Gurley said investigators learned that other metro Atlanta schools, including two in Atlanta, received the same threat from the same phone number. Police suspect the call may have been a swatting prank. Investigators are working with federal partners to find the source of the calls, which they believe was out of state, and they are examining whether artificial intelligence was used to generate the threatening call. No arrests had been reported by Wednesday night.

The second school scare in three days

Wednesday's calls followed the same pattern as the scare on Monday, November 9, when three Atlanta Public Schools elementary schools, Morningside, E. Rivers and Springdale Park, were evacuated after phoned bomb threats, and a fourth school, Virginia-Highland Elementary, was placed on an exterior lockdown. Searches found nothing that Monday either, and every school was cleared. FOX 5 Atlanta noted that Wednesday's incident followed multiple threats earlier in the week. For parents across metro Atlanta, Wednesday brought the same drill twice in three school days: a call, a lockdown, a police sweep, and then an all clear with no one hurt.