The Latest: School threats could be part of "swatting" trend
In recent months, hoaxers playing online games have allegedly used proxy servers and other high-tech identity-disguising tools to anonymously threaten schools online or in phone messages with electronic voices to trigger a huge police response, including SWAT teams.
Media outlets across the United States, from New England to Wisconsin and California, as well as in the United Kingdom are reporting school evacuations because of threats.
In Colorado, an elementary school in the Denver suburb of Parker was evacuated after getting what Douglas County School District spokeswoman Paula Hans described as an automated phone message.
In New Hampshire, police say Portsmouth High School, Fuller Elementary School in Keene, Berlin Middle School in Berlin, and Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua received threats Monday.