On Tuesday morning, Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School — two of the nearest high schools to Stanford — sheltered in place as officers responded to unconfirmed threats at both schools, according to an X post shared by the Palo Alto Police Department. The department has since reported “Students and staff are safe at this time.”

At 11:50 a.m., the department shared that officers had completed their searches at both schools and found no threats. The shelter-in-place orders were lifted, with students to be dismissed as normal in the afternoon. The details of the potential threats officers responded have not been shared. 

Stanford University received no threats against the campus regarding this matter, Crime Prevention and Public Information Officer Bill Larson told The Daily.

Captain James Reifschneider, of the Admistrative Service Division at Palo Alto Police Department, told The Daily in an email that their 24-hour communications center received a call reporting an “unidentified individual was posting, in an online chat room, that he was about to commit gun violence on the Gunn High School campus.” As officers responded to and cleared the threat at the school, the same individual posted online claiming he was at Palo Alto High School. 

The subject has yet to be identified, according to Reifschneider.

“Additional officers, with the assistance of deputies from the Stanford Department of Public Safety, responded to Palo Alto HS and thoroughly searched the campus on foot, finding no evidence of any actual threat,” Reifschneider wrote.

Other Bay Area schools also received potential threats Tuesday. At 11:49 a.m., the Piedmont Police Department responded to a call reporting a “male…armed with an AR15 rifle in front of Piedmont High School threatening to shoot people in the area,” according to their social media accounts. Officers were then dispatched to Piedmont High School, Piedmont Middle School and Millenium High School. The three schools were placed on lockdown. 

At 12:46 p.m., the police department updated they “have received an all-clear from units at the scene,” and the schools resumed as scheduled. 

The Piedmont Police Department wrote in a post on Facebook that the threats appeared to be part of “a widespread ‘Swatting’ incident.”