There is a police presence at many schools across Illinois today - after what appears to be a large-scale "swatting" hoax.
The hoax, which includes calls to police department of an active shooter, along with social media posts, was reported in Carbondale, Marion, Mt. Vernon, Centralia, Salem, Granite City, Rockford, and Freeport - and law enforcement agencies all over the state say they went into a higher alert status to be on the safe side.
All schools report no active shooter - but many went into lockdown as the reports came in Wednesday morning. Some had lifted those lockdowns by lunchtime.
Investigations are underway to try and track down the culprits of the hoax.
