Oakland County Sheriff’s Office deputies are searching the school as a precaution

OXFORD TWP., Mich. – The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is responding to Oxford High School for what is believed to be a bogus threat of violence at the school, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

An unknown caller reported the threat around 11:45 a.m. today, claiming there was a person in a bathroom with an AK-47-type automatic rifle and a pipe bomb and was threatening to shoot everyone and detonate the bomb, police said.

The school is on lockdown and the building is being searched out of an abundance of caution.

“Every threat will be fully investigated, and we will always seek to hold the responsible accountable,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. “We have even worked with partners in Europe to prosecute people in the past.”

The sheriff’s office said the threat, believed to be “swatting,” came from the Netherlands and is not believed to be credible.

Swatting is the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target’s residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them.

The sheriff’s office sent multiple cars to the school at 745 N. Oxford Road in Oxford Township as a precaution. Some students evacuated to nearby Meijer, while others remained at the school in lockdown.