Saturday was April Fools’ Day, an informal holiday filled with pranks, lies, and jokes. Many people enjoy the day and its custom of pranking other people as a time for harmless fun. The key, however, is in the word “harmless.”
While it almost certainly wasn’t connected to the tradition of April Fools’ and instead is part of an ongoing, nation-wide problem, the swatting hoax Wyoming schools faced this week shows the dark side of harmful pranks.
When false report of school shooters at high schools came in Monday morning, Wyoming residents went through about half an hour of fear. Parents heard rumors of active shooters but were instructed to stay away from schools while they feared their children could be in danger. Teachers and students went through lockdowns and evacuations. Law enforcement officers put their established response plans in motion as quickly and efficiently as possible. Rumors and uncertainty spread as everyone waited to find out what was going on.
Even when law enforcement and school districts reassured the public that the reports were unfounded, and when schools were cleared, declared safe, and lifted from lockdown, everyone still had to grapple with what had just happened.
Exactly one week after a school shooting in Tennessee that left two children and two adults dead, Wyoming had to come face to face with the idea that we could be next.
We are grateful beyond words that the active shooter reports on Monday were a hoax. However, we are also angry that these hoaxes exist. With reports of these swatting calls most likely coming from overseas, we can only speculate on who is doing this and what they hope to accomplish. But whatever the intent, the effect is confusion, fear, and pain.
One of the concerns of hoaxes and pranks, whatever their source, is that we live in a world where it seems to be increasingly difficult to know what is true. Fears and accusations of “fake news” have spread over the past few years. It seems that anyone can say anything, especially on digital and social media platforms, whether it is true or not. Hoaxes that pose as truth or pranks that later say “it was only a joke” can feel like a slap in the face, especially when they are initially taken at face value.
When it comes to swatting hoaxes, law enforcement have the right response in treating the situation as true out of an abundance of caution. Heaven forbid we get to the “boy who cried wolf” scenario and don’t respond quickly enough when the threat is real.
When it comes to the rest of us determining whether something is true or not, it pays to take a moment to pause, evaluate, and research. It can be a good idea to take things with a grain of salt. Find reputable sources that can be trusted. Fact check information against multiple sources. Think through things before sharing.
As for intentional lies, there’s a world of difference between a silly April Fools’ prank and a harmful hoax.
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