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Over the last couple of months, you may have heard the term “swatting” being used to describe hoax shooting reports and bomb threats at schools around the country.

“Swatting” - in which a caller contacts police and claims to be in the school building where the threat is in progress - generates an extremely rapid response by law enforcement, often not leaving time for police to verify the caller’s claims.

In fact, the calls have been difficult to trace as most have used encrypted internet signals and are actually theorized to be coming from outside of the U.S.

Unfortunately, these “swatting” incidents have recently impacted some of our neighboring school districts including Beaverton, North Clackamas, Portland Public, and Tigard-Tualatin. While we certainly hope none of our schools fall victim to a “swatting” scam, the potential is there and we are doing our best to prepare and be ready in advance. District administration is debriefing with other districts to gather lessons learned, and is convening with high school principals and our law enforcement partners to discuss response and mitigation strategies.

Our Featured Students are from Glencoe’s Unified Soccer Team! They placed third in this year’s Special Olympics Unified Regional games, held on Saturday, October 22nd at Wilsonville High School. This is the first time since the COVID shutdown that the regional games were held, and the first time Glencoe and Hilhi combined forces to enter a unified team. Both schools competed in Unified Basketball and Kickball last year, with Glencoe’s team taking first place in the regional basketball tournament. The team’s next stop is the Special Olympics Unified State Games at Providence Park on Saturday, November 19th. Way to go, students, and good luck at the State Games! You make us Proud to be HSD!

First quarter ends on Wednesday, November 9th. There will be no school for all students on Thursday, November 10th for an elementary work day and secondary grade prep. There will also be no school on Friday, November 11th for Veterans Day. School resumes and second quarter begins on Monday, November 14th.

Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: hsd.k12.or.us and the 2022-23 School Year page: hsd.k12.or.us/202223schoolyear to stay informed about what’s happening in our district and schools.