Hutch High put on lockdown after suspected swatting call, officials say

Hutchinson High School was placed on lockdown late Tuesday morning after a suspected swatting call, which is a hoax call meant to elicit a police response.

The lockdown was lifted after the school and perimeter were searched and nothing found, according to a joint release sent out Tuesday afternoon by USD 308 and the Hutchinson Police Department.

At 11:36 a.m., the HPD received a call from an unknown person about a threat to the school.

“HPD believes this was a swatting incident and any names associated with the community as a person of interest was not found to be credible,” the news release says. “No students at Hutchinson High School were found to be involved with the threat made against the school.”

Anyone with information about the threat is asked to call Hutchinson police at 620-694-2816 or Crime Stoppers of Reno County at 800-222-TIPS. Please reference Case #: 2025-40889.

The nation’s first fatal swatting call happened in 2017 in Wichita, when a hoax hostage call led to the fatal police shooting of 28-year-old Andrew Finch. The hoax call was done in retribution after an argument stemming from playing Call of Duty online. Tyler Barriss, who made the fake 911 calls, was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison.