A Louisiana substitute teacher was arrested after allegedly triggering false active shooter alerts at five schools.
Lytonja Barfield, 58, was booked Wednesday on five counts of menacing following an investigation by the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Henry Whitehorn Sr. Announced. The case began when officials with the Caddo Parish School Board contacted the sheriff’s office about emergency alerts that had activated at several schools.
Don Gibbs, the school board’s director of security, told investigators that Barfield had allegedly used the district’s emergency management system to report active shooters at five separate schools, according to the sheriff’s office. The alerts prompted immediate security responses as officials worked to verify whether the threats were real.
School officials implemented security measures to protect students and staff while they investigated the reported threats. Authorities later determined the alerts were false and identified Barfield as the person responsible for sending them.
Caddo Parish Public Schools confirmed Barfield is no longer employed by the district. The district provided a statement addressing the incident and its response.
“We are cooperating fully with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office as they continue their investigation into the matter. Ms. Barfield is no longer employed by the district, and, at the time of the incident, she was not assigned to work at any district site,” the district’s statement said.
The district added that it followed established protocols when the alerts came in. “While we will not speak to the individual details of the investigation, as that is under the purview of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, I can say that, in response to the mobile alerts, the district followed our established security protocols to ensure student and staff safety at all locations.”
A sheriff’s office detective later located Barfield and questioned her about the incident. Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, authorities arrested her and transported her to the Caddo Correctional Center.
The sheriff’s office emphasized the serious consequences of false threat reports. False reports of active threats can disrupt schools, trigger emergency responses and cause fear among students, parents, employees and the surrounding community, the agency said.
Authorities did not disclose a possible motive for the alleged false alerts. The sheriff’s office also did not identify which five schools received the alerts or detail what specific security measures were implemented in response.
In the viral moment that drew national attention, a substitute teacher allegedly exploited the same emergency notification systems designed to save lives during actual school shootings, sending five separate active shooter reports across the district in a single day. The false alarms consumed law enforcement and school security resources while terrifying school communities already on edge about campus violence.
Barfield was booked on five counts of menacing, with each count corresponding to one of the false alerts she allegedly sent through the district’s emergency management system.