Campus Alert Archive
MLS Butler

A Voicemail at 7:36 AM: How a Single Fake Threat Closed Every Madison Local School in Butler County, Ohio

OHswattingadvisoryhigh confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

At approximately 7:36 AM EDT on October 25, 2024, an employee of Madison Local Schools in Butler County, Ohio received a voicemail in which an unknown caller — falsely identifying himself as a specific seventh-grade student — threatened to 'shoot up the school.' The district activated full lockdown procedures across its elementary, middle, and high schools and dismissed all students early. Butler County Sheriff's Office later determined the call was a swatting hoax and that the named student was a victim of identity misuse, not a perpetrator.

Alerts
3
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Madison Local Schools (Butler County, Ohio)
Public Bachelors · OH
~1,500 studentsSchool MessengerMLS family-email + School Messenger
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPhone
Approximate reconstruction249 chars
This is a Madison Local Schools alert. Our district has received a threat and all schools are now on lockdown. Students are safe inside. Please do not come to the school. The Butler County Sheriff's Office is investigating. More updates will follow.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Sent through Madison Local Schools' School Messenger phone/text system within minutes of the 7:36 a.m. threat voicemail; the district has approximately 1,500 students across three buildings (elementary, middle, high)
Reconstructed; the verbatim text of the first MLS lockdown alert has not been published, but WCPO and the Journal-News confirm the substance: district-wide lockdown, do-not-come, investigation underway
Use of 'lockdown' (vs. 'lockout' or 'secure') was deliberate — the voicemail was specific enough that the district treated it as a credible internal threat until cleared
Madison Township, Butler County is a rural district approximately 30 miles north of Cincinnati; the relatively small enrollment meant a single lockdown alert reached all families through a single MLS message tree
UPDATEEmail
Approximate reconstruction389 chars
Madison Local Schools will dismiss early today due to the ongoing investigation. Elementary classes are cancelled for the remainder of the day. Middle school and high school buses will run at 10:00 AM; driving students may leave when buses are dispatched. Please pick up elementary students from designated reunification areas. We will share additional information as it becomes available.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Two-tier dismissal — elementary day cancelled entirely; middle and high school students bussed home at 10:00 a.m. — illustrates how rural Ohio districts often combine cancellation and early release in a single notification
Reconstructed from WCPO and Journal-News reporting; the exact wording of the second MLS family email has not been published
By the time this notice went out, BCSO was already actively investigating the named seventh-grader, who had been detained for questioning; the district did not publicly disclose the detention at this time
ALL CLEAREmail
Verified verbatimWCPO Cincinnati — Madison Local Schools Superintendent Jeff Staggs's letter to families, October 25, 2024123 chars
Thanks to the diligent work of the Butler County Sheriff's Office we have been informed that this was indeed a false alarm.
Verbatim sentence from Superintendent Jeff Staggs's family letter, reproduced by WCPO; appears to be the lead sentence of the all-clear message
'Thanks to the diligent work of' opening is a recognizable Ohio-superintendent locution and reflects MLS's standing practice of crediting BCSO by name in district communications
The phrase 'false alarm' (rather than 'swatting hoax') was used in this family letter even though Staggs separately confirmed to WCPO that BCSO 'had determined the threat was a swatting incident' — illustrating a deliberate two-track communication strategy where 'false alarm' is the parent-facing framing and 'swatting' is the media-facing framing
Sheriff Mike Maggard separately confirmed that the named seventh-grade student was 'a victim' of the threat rather than a perpetrator, exonerating him after detective interviews
Context

Background

At approximately 7:36 a.m. EDT on Friday, October 25, 2024, an employee of Madison Local Schools in Butler County, Ohio received a voicemail in which an unknown caller — falsely identifying himself as a specific seventh-grade student at the district — threatened to 'shoot up the school.' Madison Local Schools Superintendent Jeff Staggs immediately activated full district-wide lockdown procedures. The elementary day was cancelled; middle and high school students were bussed home at 10:00 a.m. The Butler County Sheriff's Office detained the named seventh-grader, interviewed him, and exonerated him within hours, identifying him as a victim of identity misuse rather than a perpetrator. Staggs's afternoon family letter declared the incident 'a false alarm' — a deliberately softer framing than the 'swatting incident' language he used in his concurrent media statements. The Madison Township district sits in a region that has seen multiple K-12 swatting events since 2022; the 2024 wave specifically targeted Butler County and the surrounding southwest Ohio counties.
Analysis

Key Findings

Superintendent Jeff Staggs's verbatim 'Thanks to the diligent work of the Butler County Sheriff's Office we have been informed that this was indeed a false alarm.' is one of the cleanest documented examples of a small-district all-clear that combines law-enforcement credit, official determination, and resolution framing in a single sentence
MLS used 'false alarm' in its parent-facing communications even while Staggs simultaneously used 'swatting incident' in media statements — illustrating a deliberate two-track communication strategy where the parent-facing word avoids reinforcing the swatting framing
The named seventh-grade student was a victim of identity-misuse rather than a perpetrator — a recurring pattern in 2024 swatting events where the caller falsely identifies as a named student to maximize law-enforcement response
Butler County, Ohio fell within a broader 2024 Ohio K-12 swatting wave that targeted multiple districts; MLS's relatively small enrollment (~1,500 students) made it one of the more efficiently lockable districts in the wave, with full coverage achieved through a single School Messenger blast
Outcome
Sheriff's office determined the call was a swatting hoax. Named seventh-grade student was detained, interviewed, and exonerated. Elementary day cancelled; middle and high school students dismissed early.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    District: Threat against Madison Local Schools was 'swatting' hoax (WCPO Cincinnati)
    wcpo.com
  2. News
    Threat at Madison schools a hoax 'swatting' incident (Journal-News)
    journal-news.com
  3. News
    Sheriff: 7th-grade boy detained was a 'victim' of the school threat in Butler County (FOX19)
    fox19.com
  4. News
    Greater Cincinnati schools dismissed after threat to 'shoot up the school' (Local 12)
    local12.com
  5. News
    Madison Local Schools Under Lockdown After Threat, 7th-Grader Detained for Questioning (Hoodline)
    hoodline.com
  6. Official
    Madison Local Schools (official — Madison Mohawks)
    madisonmohawks.org
Tags
swattinghoaxohiobutler-countyk12madison-local-schoolsfalse-alarmvoicemail-threatidentity-misuseschool-messengerrural-districtearly-dismissalHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion