ARCHBALD, Pa. — A typical morning turned into a lockdown at the Valley View School District in Lackawanna County.
"It was a very scary and chaotic way to start just a regular school day," said Valley View Superintendent Mike Boccella.
Boccella says Lackawanna County 911 received a call from an out-of-state number, claiming there was an intruder at the high school in Archbald, prompting a lockdown of all school buildings and a swift police response.
"We handle what we have to handle here, and we can't take anything lightly, so of course, we have to treat everything like it's a major incident and hope that it's not," said Archbald Police Sgt. Brian Mundy.
The silver lining? Putting all of that training into action. Police searched the buildings and found no credible threat.
"Back in the day, we used to just do fire drills, and now sadly, we have to do active shooter drills, and we do them often. I think our preparedness showed today, and we had a very quick response time," said Boccella.
The district notified parents of the situation, saying they weren't the only ones in the state dealing with this type of incident.
Similar calls affected at least a dozen other districts, including Lehighton Area, Bellefonte, and Altoona.
"We were able to resume a normal day, and everybody gets to go home safely, as they should every day," said Boccella.
"It's nerve-wracking for the families, the students, faculty, and even us because we have officers here that have school-aged children that attend Valley View," said Sgt. Mundy.
For parents who live in the district, even though this incident was found to be a fake call, it's still a worry.
"You can't really take anything as a hoax because there all of these threats. Every time you turn on the news, there is some new shooting, or there are kids losing their lives every day. It's a scary thought," said Anne Keyasko of Peckville.
The Valley View School District in Lackawanna County will have increased security for the rest of the week.
State police are investigating some of the false alarm calls. Local police are investigating others.
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