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dockellis24 t1_je5e6b1 wrote

The mods are prob still stuck on the parkway

239

jetsetninjacat t1_je5rzuy wrote

Can confirm. Am always stuck on the parkway.

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chad4359 t1_je6d2ps wrote

It is one of the many r/Pittsburgh traditions

5

yinzdaddy t1_je7en1h wrote

Like quitting a job, going to UPMC, quitting UPMC, going back to original job?

14

jetsetninjacat t1_je7hpym wrote

Right next to being stuck on 51 before and after. If not 51 it's 28. Just can't win...

2

jdtomchick t1_je5qqdo wrote

This was reported at multiple schools across the state, at least all the way to central pa. Seems like a widespread hoax

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dehehn t1_je6559q wrote

Such a shitty thing to do.

I was doing wedding prep today and our florist came out of the backroom crying after taking a call. She had heard the active shooter reports and had to leave to go pick up her kid.

Even if it was a false alarm it terrified everyone involved. So some asshole can have some lolz.

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gruhfuss t1_je9leps wrote

>have some lolz

Could be, probably. But something like this can also reduce subsequent response times or spread unneeded responses out to false alarms and provide inadequate support at an actual event.

It’s becoming so easy to spoof things like this, it seems foolish to think a particularly meticulous shooter wouldn’t consider it leading up to planned attacks.

I know it sounds like more suburban dad fear mongering, but really it goes to show that the focus of improving “crisis event responses” is insufficient as opposed to solutions to root causes. And I mean actual root causes beyond just “common sense” gun control too - mental health coverage, improving home life through universal SE supports, and diversion programs to give more kids a spark to pursue.

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dehehn t1_jecbib9 wrote

Shit. That will probably happen. Swat three places and attack somewhere else...

1

CARLEtheCamry t1_je6dllf wrote

It was done stupidly too. For Hopewell, the call went to Aliquippa PD. The post office is in Aliquippa so the school has Aliquippa in the mailing address - even though we have our own police force. HQ right next to the Jr. High none the less.

No one actually from Hopewell would have made that mistake. Whoever did this just googled it and guessed.

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AKim2719 t1_je5uxbs wrote

Yes. Most schools in Cambria County were on lockdown until 11:30 a.m.

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moonwish22 t1_je76mz4 wrote

Yes, it was multiple school districts across the state. All the schools near me were on lock down. Including the one my 5 year old attends. It was a widespread hoax. The message to police was an automated message sent out around 9 AM for all the schools effected. It’s being investigated by FBI now.

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TheFaceo t1_je5dtax wrote

My little brother is inside the school and texted that he is ok, it seems at the moment that no shots were fired.

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Jenerco t1_je5e7rh wrote

I feel for him, must have been terrifying. Glad everyone is okay.

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greatsirius OP t1_je5goux wrote

This is info we need great thank you for sharing. I hope your brother is ok

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CompetitionDue9117 t1_je5xspq wrote

i go to oakland catholic. it was a fake call and i have never seen such large guns in my whole life held by police.

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otterfeets t1_je5za8s wrote

You and your peers shouldn’t have to go through this. Please take advantage of resources if you are feeling any sort of trauma from what happened today.

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CompetitionDue9117 t1_je6165q wrote

you are so kind thank you ❤️

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bekahed979 t1_je6ivwc wrote

Seriously, this itself was traumatic. There is nothing wrong with talking to someone about it.

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Infamous-Drawing521 t1_je6840f wrote

As a central Catholic student, I also agree. Easily the scariest moment of my life. I was in the library and they made us walk out with our hands on our head with guns pointed at us. I feel the most for the teachers, they were devastated. Some teachers and students were take into interrogation if they weren’t in a classroom when authorities went into the building. Thank god nothing happened.

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ComtessedeSevigny t1_je6iq9s wrote

I'm so sorry you and your teachers and families experienced this. It's absolutely devastating. Take advantage of whatever resources that are out there if you need to talk or vent, now or 6 months from now.

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Infamous-Drawing521 t1_je6s0vj wrote

Appreciate the kind words. Definitely a little shaken up. I feel the worst for the teachers. They looked like ghosts and shouldn’t have to be in charge of things like that. Rumor has it some were pinned to lockers and held at gunpoint since they weren’t in a classroom and had to be treated as suspect

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ControllerPlayer06 t1_je7jee7 wrote

I go to central. I saw an assault weapon for the 1st time today. I though to myself,”Why do we let American citizens have weapons like that?”

8

kskir t1_je7qac5 wrote

We need you and all of your peers to save us. As soon as you can, vote, talk to your friends, get them to vote. I am putting all of my eggs in the basket of the youth. Only you know what living in this country right now really feels like as it pertains to this type of gum violence.

7

Ok-Ad-5404 t1_je5evqj wrote

I’ve been listening to the scanner all morning. A Central Catholic student called UPMC Police who then called regular Police stating that there were “6 people shot in a second floor bathroom.”

Police responded and found no active shooter or victims, however they are locking down and evacuating as a precaution.

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ScareJessica2Death t1_je5g4zz wrote

That fucking kid needs to be expelled from school.

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Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_je5gbml wrote

Probably isn't a cchs student. Seems to be happening at multiple high schools and why would a central Catholic student call? UPMC police UPMC doesn't even patrol Central Catholic and anyone in a real active shooter situation would just call 911. This sounds like some sort of internet swatting thing.

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SnooEagles9747 t1_je5d4w2 wrote

CMU has issued an alert to all students to avoid the area. Some classes have been canceled. Their (CHS) school sirens were going off, but no info from within the high school that I know of, yet.

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SnooEagles9747 t1_je5gd94 wrote

Shelter in place order has been lifted at CMU, no ongoing threat.

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mrsrtz t1_je5p5wg wrote

Yeah, I posted on the CMU Reddit, they have housing right next door and across the street.

5

Excelius t1_je5tmjs wrote

The hoaxes aren't isolated to here, either:

https://www.ksl.com/article/50610726/hoax-sweeps-through-utah-schools-prompting-police-presence

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2023/03/28/hoax-shooting-calls-massachusetts-schools-nashville/

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PaPaMcGin t1_je5vnw8 wrote

Clearly this is not some jerk high school student. There is a serious level of sophistication and coordination to pull something like this nationwide.

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xxdropdeadlexi t1_je5wsuu wrote

At a certain point is this not terrorism?

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SendAstronomy t1_je6sthj wrote

A single call to a single school is terrorism.

Calling many is basically an attack on national infrastructure. Possibly state sponsored.

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JAK3CAL t1_jeaqgcr wrote

Russian Troll Farm.

Seriously though, this seems like a foreign actor.

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asr t1_je6ii65 wrote

To be terrorism it must have a political goal.

/u/Wisedonkey593

−20

ItsTheSoupNazi t1_je6mwq2 wrote

That’s not true. It extends to religious, social, racial, or environmental goals too.

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asr t1_je6ob4b wrote

That's the same thing - those are essentially more specific subsets of political goals.

My point is mainly it has to have some goal, just causing trouble is not terrorism.

−16

Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_je7uwwn wrote

To stoke unrest is a political goal

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asr t1_je8pie2 wrote

No, it's a tool for a political goal, it's not a political goal in and of itself.

−5

CARLEtheCamry t1_je6e7pa wrote

Yeah I know I may sound like I'm wearing a tin foil hat but thoughts go to the Russians or Chinese trying to stoke unrest in the US.

It could go either way. School shootings start the debate about gun control which divides the nation. False alarms like this are just fuel to the fire. One of the first comments I heard muttered when I arrived on scene was "this is why we need to give the teachers guns".

Which, in fairness it was a emotionally charged situation because we had no idea what was going on, and people were just running their mouths.

12

steelforgedstudios t1_je6k0h9 wrote

Well it worked. Not because of gun control, they're coming after the minorities now. I got attacked verbally and blamed out of nowhere by someone and told I'm evil for doing this to the Christians "as a transgender" and that "what gives you transgenders the right to think you can kill little Christian kids".

If the person who accosted me had a weapon, who knows what could have happened they were literally that deranged and worked up into a lather. I look on my phone 15 minutes afterwards while in tears from the encounter to see it's all a hoax.

I was just existing, standing out waiting for my ride on the sidewalk in the East End as this insanity went down.

I have a nephew the ages of these kids, wish harm to no one, and am actually Catholic. Today I was told I'm responsible for these things because of some lunatic in Tennessee and something I was born as.

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SendAstronomy t1_je6t5ia wrote

Remind them that it's 5 trans shooters, 3000 cis shooters in the past 5 years, and the overwhelming majority of those are male.

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linktm t1_je8h8qu wrote

It's total fucking bullshit that the scapegoat wheel of misfortune has landed on the trans community, the majority of shooters are cis white dudes with a hate agenda. Pitt's bringing in all these hateful guest speakers too which only amplifies the issue and hate speech on campus. I'm so sorry you had to deal with this. You deserve better.

2

Expert-Diamond6467 t1_je8c10o wrote

Hey, almost like when law abiding gun owners get lumped in with crazy people who shoot up schools!

Sucks, eh?

I feel ya. Sorry you had to have it happen to you too.

Signed, law abiding gun owner.

−5

steelforgedstudios t1_je8f52a wrote

Oh dude, no not almost like at all. You weren't born a law-abiding gun owner you choose to own a gun, you can put your gun away at any time and no one knows you're a gun owner, no one's oppressing you due to your gun ownership, you could lose gun ownership and still be the person that you are. No one's threatening to exterminate you for being a gun owner.

Please get some perspective.

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PaPaMcGin t1_je6fl3w wrote

Whomever it is, stoking unrest is the goal. It's fair to work your way back from that assumption.

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tesla3by3 t1_je6b7o5 wrote

In the days of social media things like this don’t require any sophistication at all. Someone in Nebraska sees a tweet about it happening in Pittsburgh and decides to do the same thing

6

billy_zane27 t1_jego5gl wrote

These aren't tweets, these are hundreds if not thousands of phone calls to schools and hospitals around the country. This is not the work of one or two trolls, this is state sponsored information warfare

1

CARLEtheCamry t1_je5v5bn wrote

Hopewell students are released. If a parent isn't available to pick them up, they're being bussed back to their schools (they consolidated a bunch but not all kids at Margret Ross)

“The HS students are being moved to the Hopewell Shopping Center to be bussed home immediately, and all HS drivers will be allowed to return to the HS to pick up the cars and drive home.

“All schools are currently in lockdown. Buses will take the HS students home and return to the Hopewell Shopping Center plaza to pick up the Junior High School students for dismissal. It is expected that the JHS will be on buses departing the plaza at 1:15-1:30pm and will return students home at that time. For families wanting to pick up their JHS child, all students will be moved to the shopping plaza. Please stay in your car and be positioned in the fire lane heading from Empire Palace restaurant towards Kuhns with passenger doors on curb side. Kuhns will be the front of the pickup line.

“All elementary schools will depart school on regular buses at the regular dismissal time for childcare purposes. Elementary families will be able to pick up students if they desire to do so upon reading this notification. However, buses will operate as under regular conditions for elementary only.”

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bethskw t1_je66es3 wrote

North Allegheny sent an email to parents saying they know about these hoaxes and that they are hoaxes (NA was not among the schools involved) but that as a precaution they are keeping the schools in “secure mode” to the end of the day. Classes going on as usual but nobody is allowed in or out.

15

__WASD__ t1_je6g6ju wrote

Middle Schooler here We were in lockdown most of the day even though we were not one of the 4 schools we didn’t even know why until my friend checked the news we were quite nervous but I just hope the catch the piece of crap that did this

14

stonks66666669 t1_je5puks wrote

My school went into lockdown! Its crazy

13

ControllerPlayer06 t1_je5rcb4 wrote

What school? I’m a central kid

5

sputzie88 t1_je62b8j wrote

I am very relieved this was a hoax but I hope it will cause more people to speak up and demand better gun control. No one should be constantly on alert for this to happen to them, especially kids! Maybe that was the reasoning behind the swatting- making a larger population experience the tiniest fraction of what that horror is like. Doesn't excuse it but what the hell will it take for us to value lives above weapons?

12

333scorpio t1_je5wg7e wrote

Bethel Park sent out a message as well. All safe and a police presence at each school.

While it could be some asshat in a basement, I can't help but speculate Russia, China, Iran, etc could be "terrorizing" us with this crap.

Stay strong and resilient.

7

SendAstronomy t1_je6tjpu wrote

About 10 years ago there was a string of bomb threats nearly every day at Pitt. It took them months to figure it out.

It's almost guaranteed to happen again tomorrow or soon. :(

8

333scorpio t1_je6wjec wrote

Pittnews just posted about this two weeks ago.

https://pittnews.com/article/172118/news/really-came-together-pitt-community-reflects-on-2012-bomb-threats/

I'm afraid you're correct with saying it is going to continue.

8

linktm t1_je8g8ze wrote

Oh God, don't remind me. I was completely desensitized to those Pitt Alerts at all hours of the day across every building on campus after like the 10th one. Even when they were evacuating offices a lot of coworkers were like "Fuck this, it's cold outside, I'm staying inside." and took their chances.

2

JoeNoble1973 t1_je6eus7 wrote

As this gets more widespread, I’m starting to wonder this as well.

4

AlexanderPriceMusic t1_je6elbx wrote

Seems like it’s a widespread threat. My wife’s elementary school was on lockdown this morning in Cambria County. I teach at Duquesne and we received multiple updates about these hoax threats today. If I had to guess, it might be related to the recent school shooting in Tennessee - someone’s dumb idea to try and at least invoke a reaction from the thoughts and prayers crowd.

7

redmegg t1_je5wp53 wrote

Pitt locked down all of its buildings until it was confirmed a hoax. I got most of my information from @ACNewsAlerts1 on twitter and wpxi.com

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Be_Finale_of_Seem t1_je74q0o wrote

Does anyone know if mental health support services will be offered on site to the central students and teachers tomorrow or soon after today?

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bmcl7777 t1_jeaggrg wrote

Per a tweet from local media both Central and Oakland are closed today and tomorrow and counselors will be on hand.

WTAE tweet.

1

bmcl7777 t1_jeags13 wrote

And per another thread on here, Central and Oakland’s spring break starts next week.

1

TacoBean19 t1_je67s81 wrote

My brother goes to sci-tech which is close to central catholic and he told me he is fine, all off Pittsburgh schools were on lockdown since about 1:00 today, but schools in Oakland were on lockdown much earlier

4

DonBonj t1_je6y0k6 wrote

It was a mass spread robo call to a bunch of schools in PA. Doesn’t seem to have been any more serious than trying to incite panic.

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La-vei-sans-air t1_je5updo wrote

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/central-catholic-high-school-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-school-threats-hoax/

2

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11

gruhfuss t1_je9lrby wrote

Do Central and Oakland actually run active shooter drills in school now?

2

hrim-faxi t1_jebb6tx wrote

i know when i was an OC student we ran maybe 1 or 2 in the 4 years i was there (2015-2019) so hopefully those increased

1

CC-1112 t1_je5z9ar wrote

False alarm, hoax across the diocese of Pittsburgh.

We are on lockdown but that's it

1

mrsrtz t1_jeahp7j wrote

It appears that Albany NY and a community college in North Carolina are today's recipients of the swatting. So far.

1

[deleted] t1_je7hjf7 wrote

[deleted]

0

greatsirius OP t1_je7lchv wrote

You need to lay off the politics lmao. I promise Putin does not give a fuck about a shooting hoax in Pittsburgh. Go out and get some air dude

3

Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jegvdl5 wrote

Honestly it is most likely international based. Sowing anguish and anger is a Russian speciality. China was just caught meddling in many Canadian elections, including Mayoral race of Vancouver. If they're willing to interfere with a mayoral race they certainly can send off fake shooting bot phone calls.

1

IClight69 t1_je9byvx wrote

You realize this didn’t just happen in Pittsburgh? It happened / is happening on a National level.

−1

gucci_gucci_gu t1_je6s1u9 wrote

Now military grade police will be present at all schools 10x more than before. The US is a police state.

−2

Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_je5rz74 wrote

The one good thing about this megathread is that it finally killed the train derailment one.

−22

carols10cents t1_je5f5mo wrote

Congrats you just made it worse by starting yet another thread

−62

Open_Philosopher8020 t1_je5hgfz wrote

Yeah it’s a hoax but let’s panic anyway

−38

doctorwhy88 t1_je5suvi wrote

“Why didn’t those people know it was a hoax right away? No one would actually shoot up a U.S. school!”

Ever consider connecting your brain to your fingers before typing?

22

scottylike t1_je5xnsy wrote

Hopefully you don’t have to go through this one day, fake or not.

8

Cfit9090 t1_je8ai4k wrote

Yeah because guns, kids, schools and making malicious threats towards human lives, is just a lil practical joke.

You know, like pulling the fire alarm to get out of class. No harm, no file 😒

1