Substitute Teacher Accused of Triggering Fake Active-Shooter Alerts at 5 Louisiana Schools
Lytonja Barfield, 58, allegedly used the district's own emergency system to send simultaneous false shooter warnings — and wasn't even scheduled to work that day.
A 58-year-old substitute teacher has been arrested after allegedly hijacking her own school district's emergency alert system to send false active-shooter warnings to five Caddo Parish campuses at once, sending the schools into lockdown and triggering a sheriff's response before investigators determined there was no actual threat.
The alerts hit five schools in the Shreveport-area district simultaneously on Wednesday, Aug. 19, according to a Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office press release. Schools moved into lockdown and security protocols; no shooter, weapon or injuries were ever found. District security director Don Gibbs flagged the false alarm to the school board, which contacted the sheriff's office.
Traced to a Teacher Not Even Scheduled That Day
Investigators say they quickly traced the alerts to Lytonja Barfield, a district substitute teacher who — notably — was not assigned to work at any campus that day. A sheriff's detective located and questioned her, and she was arrested Thursday, Aug. 20, on five counts of menacing, one for each school hit by the false alerts. She's since been booked into Caddo Correctional Center and is no longer employed by the district.
FALSE REPORTS OF ACTIVE THREATS CAN CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DISRUPTIONS AND CREATE FEAR.
"False reports of active threats can cause significant disruptions, prompt emergency responses, and create fear among students, parents, school employees, and the broader community," the sheriff's office said in its statement, confirmed by Fox News. Caddo Parish Public Schools said in its own statement that it is "cooperating fully with the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office," and confirmed Barfield's employment status and scheduling at the time of the incident.
Barfield's motive has not been disclosed, and the sheriff's office has not said how she was able to access the district's internal alert system without being on shift. The names of the five affected schools have not been publicly released, and no attorney for Barfield has been named in reporting so far.
What's Next
The investigation remains open, and no court date has yet been reported for Barfield. The incident lands amid heightened national anxiety over school-shooting threats, and district officials say they are reviewing how the alert system's access controls allowed an off-duty employee to trigger a district-wide false alarm.