Stillwater Police Speak On Response To Hoax Active Shooter Call At Stillwater Junior High School

A Stillwater school resource officer talked with News 9 about how he quickly learned that a call about an active shooter was a hoax.

Stillwater Police said they received a call about an active shooter at Stillwater Junior High School Thursday morning, around the same time that other schools across Oklahoma were getting similar bogus calls.

"In math class number 100, he shot at four students here," the caller said. "When I was teaching the math class, he came into the classroom. He shot at four students."

Already on campus was School Resource Officer Jared Noles. He said he advised the school staff to go on lockdown while he responded to the situation. But he noticed the call had inaccuracies.

"He identified the 100 classroom, which I knew that we did not have a 100 classroom. But I knew the area of the building that would be close to that, our 100 hallway. So I responded directly to that," Noles said.

Noles said he got there within 35 seconds and noticed it was too quiet.

"I entered the hallways and I knew there was no commotion. I didn't hear anything, no yelling, screaming or anything," said Noles. "So it led me to believe there was something more going on."

In addition, the caller pretending to be a teacher gave a name. But Noles knew better.

"I knew being very familiar with staff that that teacher was not in this building," said Noles.

Once Noles confirmed there was no active shooter, police officers went to other schools as a precaution.

"The chief decided to start dispatching other officers to other locations in case it might have been a diversion," said Noles.

But they did not find any threat and everyone was safe.

"Immediate response equals saving lives," Noles said of having SROs at schools.

Police responded to at least 10 school districts throughout Oklahoma on Thursday after getting similar hoax calls. No threat was found in any of those incidents. The FBI said it's working with law enforcement agencies to find those responsible.

"It's hard to understand why somebody would want to commit a crime like that and create chaos and stress in students," said Noles. "It doesn't make sense to me."

In addition to the Stillwater Junior High School, Noles is also assigned to the nearby Skyline Elementary. There are four SROs in the district.