MT. VERNON, Mo. (KY3) – An AI-generated app sent false information about a shooting at Mount Vernon Elementary School, causing confusion and worry among parents and school officials.
School officials said the message came from an app called CrimeRadar, which incorrectly reported a shooting at the school. No shooting occurred.
Superintendent Christina West said she learned about the false alert Friday morning after the school principal received calls from several concerned parents.
“I tried to quickly get a message out to send information as quickly as I could to parents because, as a parent myself, I cannot imagine the panic if they saw that,” West said.
How the error happened
West said the message included a disclaimer at the bottom stating the information was AI-generated and may not be accurate. She immediately contacted Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay, who confirmed no incident had been reported to the sheriff’s office.
“Apparently, it was some type of AI bot that monitors emergency radio frequencies and then takes that talk and turns it into text and sends it out, I guess, to subscribers,” DeLay said.
DeLay said a deputy was already at the school serving as a resource officer. Investigators believe the AI system misinterpreted radio traffic.
“Best we can tell when he had gotten on the radio, his exact words are, I’m out at the elementary school. Somehow, that AI bot translated that into shots at the elementary school. And that’s what went out,” DeLay said.
School district response
West said the district communicates with parents through phone calls, text messages, emails, and social media posts. She said false information from outside sources makes it difficult to control accurate messaging.
“We want to work as a school district with local law enforcement to try to see what we can do about making sure this doesn’t happen again,” West said. “An app like that should not be able to cause unnecessary alarm like that with false information. That’s not okay.”
DeLay acknowledged the challenge parents face in verifying emergency information.
“That’s a $1,000,000 question,” DeLay said. “Obviously, if something like that’s going on, that information is going to be really hard to pass out. The first thing that they want to do, and what I would want to do, would be to call the school, call the police department, you know, hey, what’s going on? You know, but unfortunately, in a crisis or a potential crisis situation like that, those entities probably aren’t going to be readily available to answer the phone and give out a whole lot of information. Right now, unfortunately, probably the best thing we have at this point in time is a social media app.”
In all the situations, though, West said school staff and law enforcement responded admirably. The school was placed under a soft lockdown, and all protocols were enacted properly.
“Our staff was amazing,” said West. “They stayed very calm for, I mean, obviously, that we knew nothing was going on at that point, but we always want to make sure and take an abundance of caution, give credit to the staff because they immediately went into emergency procedures, but while remaining calm so that we didn’t upset the students as well.
The developers of CrimeRadar did not respond to requests for comment.
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