KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — On Jan. 25, several schools in Knox County went into lockdown after calls about an active shooter that felt real, according to the superintendent. Three Gibbs Middle School students were later arrested and charged with making fake 911 calls about a shooter at Halls Middle School.
Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler said the calls were disturbing.
"It's really, just, disheartening that we have young people who are thinking that way," he said. "How do you get into a young person's head, thinking that this is funny?"
Dispatchers received two calls. One was made at 11:31 a.m., and a brief transcript of that call is below. The call sounds like a boy talking.
“Uh, yes, sir, there’s a school shooter at Halls –"
The second call was made at 11:32 a.m. and a brief transcript of it is available below. In the call, it sounds like a girl is talking before another voice is heard over hers.
"There’s a shooter at Halls Middle School!”
"Get down!"
Sounds like laughter can be heard after the second voice speaks.
"One of the recordings that I went back and listened to — it sounds like a young lady, you can almost hear her laugh," Spangler said. "And I'm thinking, you know, 'What, what's funny about this? what's funny about threatening your classmates, your teachers and everybody else?'"
The sheriff said he wants the children who made the calls to face consequences.
"Making the call of a mass destruction, or the threat of it, is a misdemeanor right now for juveniles, and making the false call and or false report is a felony," Spangler said. "And it seems like it might be a little bit backward. But my understanding is the legislators are looking at it, there's already a first draft on it."
He said schools across the U.S. are seeing more fake calls about threats, but the number of fake threats in Knox County has skyrocketed. In 2023, the Juvenile Crimes Unit investigated 166 school threats, a 47% increase compared to the year before. The majority of them were verbal threats. However, social media threats have increased steadily since 2020.