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Schools in Lancaster, Chesterfield and Chester counties were among the schools with false reports.

South Middle School was one of several schools in S.C. that had false reports of an active shooter.

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. (WBTV) - School districts across the state of South Carolina were the targets of false school-shooting reports on Wednesday, officials throughout the state confirmed.

The FBI is calling this swatting. It is when someone calls 911 reporting a fake active shooter threat to get law enforcement to rush that area with resources. That is exactly what happened here in Lancaster County and two other school districts.

In the WBTV viewing area, districts in Lancaster, Chesterfield and Chester counties all had active-shooter reports called into 911. None of them turned out to be credible. Law enforcement and districts say no shots were fired and no students or school staff were injured.

That did not stop parents from coming to get their kids from South Middle. While school was not dismissed, the Lancaster County School District created a lane for parents to come pick up their kids and released those kids when the parents got there.

“I just came down here to get my kids. I got off work to come down here,” says one South Middle Parent.

South Middle School parents did not let anything get in their way of making sure their kids were safe. This South Middle parent left work to get her kids after hearing several different stories of threats against their school.

”I was scared, nervous like any parent should be,” says that parent. ”Some of the students said somebody got stabbed. Somebody else said it was an active shooter. I just know is my kids come first.”

Everyone would soon find out this was a complete hoax about an active shooter, but not before Lancaster emergency responders came full force to the school.

”Everything we had was headed this way. The kids are important to us. We certainly don’t want to see the kids get hurt,” says Sheriff Barry Faile.

Similar calls came into Chester County Schools and Chesterfield County Schools—both districts bringing in extra security just in case. In Lancaster County, a 911 call reporting a shooting at South Middle School came in just after 11:30 a.m. In Chester County, two calls came in. Then, around 1 p.m., Chesterfield County received another similar call.

But back in Lancaster, Sheriff Barry Faile says his deputies and other emergency responders responded like this was the real thing.

”We had tactical teams going through the school making sure everyone was ok. Clearing all the classrooms, closet, bathrooms, gymnasiums. Everyone responded and done what they were supposed to do what they’ve been training for,” says Faile.

Safety Director Bryan Vaughn says he feels good as he can about their response to a situation like this, especially because no one was actually hurt.

”I’m just disappointed that somebody would do something like that and take the resources away from the community and create that havoc,” says Vaughn.

Throughout the rest of the state, at least 11 other counties - Oconee, Greenville, Anderson, Laurens, Greenwood, Newberry, Richland, Beaufort, Charleston, Horry and Spartanburg - also received similar calls.

Local law enforcement, SLED, the FBI, and the S.C. Attorney General’s Office are working to find the source of the calls, and could potentially punish the people responsible.

The FBI sent out a statement saying these types of calls, which they call swatting incidents, are being made all over the country. The full statement says:

An investigation is the next steps in this investigation—who called into these school and created that havoc. Local, state and federal law enforcement says these false claims are not a joke and will be investigated thoroughly. The S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson tweeted saying “false claims aren’t a joke and prosecutors across the state will not treat them as jokes.”

Copyright 2022 WBTV. All rights reserved.

LANCASTER, S.C., Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 700 guests, including employees, community members, elected officials and SC Governor Henry McMaster, celebrated the grand opening of Nutramax Laboratories' 200,000 square foot expansion. The project, announced in 2018, nearly triples the size of the corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility on Quality Drive, in the Lancaster Business Park.

Thursday's celebration was the culmination of a three-year construction project that broke ground in March of 2019. The festivities began with catered hors d'oeuvres and views of the new lobby, followed by a program that included Dr. Troy Henderson, executive vice president, presenting a virtual tour of the space and remarks delivered by Founder and Chairman of the Board, Dr. Robert Henderson, US Congressman Ralph Norman, Lancaster County Council Chairman Steve Harper and Governor McMaster.

"The Southeast is booming, and we are leading the way because of our people and companies like this one, and the vision they have." Governor McMaster asserted. "It's a great thing to be celebrating this expansion and we look forward to more."

A common theme throughout the event was small business—the 30-year-old company began as just that and acknowledged the struggles they have overcome. Founded in 1992 by pharmacist Robert Henderson, Nutramax Laboratories began with just two employees. In 2010, the company expanded, relocating their animal health business to Lancaster. They currently employ over 750 people nationwide, with more than 80% of those local to South Carolina. The company attributes their success to a dedicated workforce and the abundant blessings from the Lord.

"The Lord just opened doors for us in the beginning and all along, providing for us things we could never do for ourselves," said Dr. Robert Henderson. "It's our job to honor Him in the way we treat our employees, our community and everyone we come in contact with; and that's our biggest goal."

The event concluded with hundreds of employees gathered behind a large green ribbon, all clad in green Nutramax shirts. President and CEO, Dr. , led the ribbon cutting ceremony with comments about their growth over the past 12 years and the fantastic team of employees they've found in this region. Dr. Henderson would hand off the over-sized scissors to , vice president of operations, to officially cut the ribbon.

"When we moved here, we weren't sure if we'd find the promised land or the desert," remarked Dr. . "But we found the promised land; we found employees that saw our vision and rallied around us."

At Nutramax Laboratories, we're improving the lives of people and their pets, every day. Our products are backed by science and manufactured in world-class facilities. It is our mission to serve the Lord and glorify Him, using the gifts He has given our employees to research, develop, manufacture and market products to improve the lives of people and their pets. Nutramax Laboratories is headquartered in , and employs over 750 people nationwide. To learn more, visit:

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A legal team suing the troubled New-Indy paper mill in South Carolina says it has uncovered evidence that dioxin, a cancer-causing material, is seeping into the Catawba River from the more than 60-year-old industrial site south of Charlotte.

In an Oct. 20 letter to New-Indy, lawyers said up to 100 million gallons of groundwater containing dioxin and other pollutants are being discharged to the Catawba every year from the site.

The findings outlined by the legal team are the strongest indication to date that dioxin associated with the paper mill may have reached the Catawba, a popular recreational river that provides drinking water to tens of thousands of people between Columbia and Rock Hill.

The letter’s assertions are based on multiple consulting reports, most notably a 2022 study for the legal group that says polluted groundwater from the New-Indy property is moving toward the river.

Near the river, tests show that groundwater and soil are contaminated with dioxin, according to the 2022 study by consulting hydrogeologist Harvey Cohen. The contaminated soil is next to areas where seepage toward the river is occurring, the report said.

In addition, tests conducted along the bank of the Catawba River next to three New-Indy waste ponds indicate that dioxin and another pollutant, cobalt, were higher than at locations tested upriver, away from the New-Indy plant.

“It is probable that toxic and hazardous substances and pollutants are being transported from the facility to the Catawba River,’’ according to Cohen’s consulting report. “Of particular note is the presence of dioxins and furans, compounds with high toxicity, that have been observed in both groundwater near the river, and in soils adjacent to seeps discharging toward the river.’’

South Carolina regulators said they are reviewing the information in Cohen’s report, but at this point, they still have no indication that dioxin has gotten into the Catawba River. They have said previously they were not aware of dioxin contamination between New-Indy’s waste lagoons and the river.

Dioxin is one of the world’s most toxic chemicals. Certain forms of it can cause cancer in people who are exposed, and is of particular concern because it doesn’t break down easily in the environment. Dioxin, which can pollute fish people eat, has been linked to the deaths of domestic animals and illnesses in children.

The Oct. 20 letter, sent by the Motley Rice law firm and five other attorneys’ offices, was written on behalf of six area residents, including former state Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Gov. Henry McMaster were among those copied on the letter to New-Indy.

It accuses New-Indy of violating the nation’s Clean Water Act and the U.S. hazardous waste law, commonly referred to as RCRA — and the letter threatens lawsuits over the alleged violations. The water pollution violations center on contaminated groundwater leaking into the Catawba, which makes for an illegal discharge, the letter said.

The legal team, which also includes the Baird Mandalas Brockstedt Federico & Cardea law firm of Delaware, has previously sued New-Indy over odors that the plant generated after it switched from making bleached paper to unbleached containerboard about two years ago.

Residents registered nearly 50,000 odor complaints with DHEC after the switch was made. The odor suit is seeking class action status, which could provide payments to thousands of people if successful.

New-Indy, which acquired the former Bowater paper mill about four years ago, declined comment Tuesday. But in a Sept. 20 email to The State, the company said it had not found that dioxin was leaving the paper mill site and “we do not expect this to happen.’’

Late Wednesday, more than a day after declining to comment on the Oct. 20 letter, the company issued a statement saying “no hazardous level of dioxin was detected’’ in any of the plant’s monitoring wells. The company said reports that dioxin is draining into the river are “baseless.”

New-Indy, a national corporation owned in part by New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, has said it does its best to follow environmental laws and is working to make improvements. The company has conducted tours of the site and held meetings with local residents to hear their concerns, officials have said.

Powers Norrell, however, said DHEC should have been more aggressive at overseeing New-Indy’s operations.

The plant ran into recent problems after it switched processes and cut out key pollution control equipment, with DHEC’s approval. DHEC should have been “just immediately getting on it when the citizens started to complain,’’ she said.

DHEC has previously fined New-Indy nearly $130,000 for environmental violations, and the agency’s top official said New-Indy misled DHEC about changes it was making at the plant.

In a statement Tuesday, DHEC said it knows that dioxin has been found in sludge in the wastewater basins, but not elsewhere.

Dioxin also has been found in “very low concentrations’’ in groundwater at some monitoring wells on the site, but the levels are not above safe drinking water standards, the agency said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. The agency also said dioxin doesn’t dissolve well in water, but instead tends to cling to sediment.

Regardless, the matter needs close attention, said Powers Norrell, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2018. Dioxin and other pollution in the Catawba River are concerns for people who kayak there, she said. Kayak trips often take her to places where rare rocky shoals spider lilies bloom, she said.

“This is a big concern because I love the Catawba River,’’ she said. “It is my favorite part about living where I live, that we have this tiny slice of heaven when you are out there and you are paddling.’’

The Catawba is one of the Carolinas’ more visible rivers. It begins in the mountains above Charlotte, crosses into South Carolina and runs about 75 miles from the border to Lake Wateree north of Columbia. Below the lake, the Catawba becomes the Wateree River.

It provides drinking water for the Chester Metropolitan District and the Catawba River Water Supply Project, which has an intake across from the New-Indy plant, records show. The river also runs past the Catawba Indian reservation not far from New-Indy.

Dioxin, sometimes referred to as dioxins, is part of a class of compounds that have been created through the years by industrial processes.

Paper mills that bleach paper are among those that have released dioxin, The State reported earlier this year. Along the South Carolina coast, people eating fish from a river near Georgetown had the nation’s highest cancer risk from dioxin at one point more than 30 years ago, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency has reported. Lower cancer risks were calculated for the Bowater plant, The State reported in 1990.

New-Indy, in its Sept. 20 email to The State, said dioxin likely was introduced at its paper mill site long before the company acquired the property. Several companies have owned the plant, including Bowater, which ran the paper mill for decades.

The mill no longer uses a process that generates dioxin, but past problems linger, the statement said. The company’s statement said a prior owner “did nothing to identify the extent of the dioxin issue or develop plans to address it.’’ The statement did not name the previous owner.

“New-Indy has spent a considerable amount of time locating and characterizing the dioxin,’’ the statement said. “New-Indy continues to work with DHEC to define the scope of the historical issue and to identify the best manner to contain it in perpetuity.’’

Dioxin isn’t the only pollutant that has shown up in groundwater that threatens the Catawba River. Other contaminants include lead, benzene and trichlorethene, all of which are hazardous to human health, according to the attorneys’ Oct. 20 letter to New-Indy.

The pollutants also include cobalt, a metal often associated with nuclear facilities. It was not known this week why cobalt has shown up at the New-Indy site. Certain forms of the silvery gray metal can increase cancer risks in people exposed to high enough amounts, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In addition to the Motley Rice and Baird Mandalas law firms, others representing people against New-Indy are the Harpootlian, Stavrinakis, Pope and Mauney law firms.

Steve Pettit isn’t the kind of guy to sit around inside. He spent years working in home construction and then at home in Lancaster County, taking care of the family’s horses and tending to the yard. But treating his lung cancer has him sitting around a lot lately.

“I wouldn’t wish this on nobody,” he said, as he sat in an infusion suite in MUSC Hollings Cancer Center in Charleston, medication dripping through an IV into his veins. Despite how he feels, he and his wife, Tammy, are grateful for the lung cancer screening program that alerted him to the cancer, enabling him to get treated for it.

Steve Pettit is receiving a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, with the possibility of surgery later, and Tammy Pettit hopes that he’ll be cancer free by the end of the year.

“That is a few short months … rough at times, yes, but had we not caught this as early as we did, his treatment plan could have been much longer,” she said.

Catching cancer early is the focus of Hollings’ lung cancer screening program, which started in Charleston but has since expanded to the MUSC Health-Lancaster Division, MUSC Health-Florence Division and MUSC Health-Midlands Division.

“You don't really have signs and symptoms of anything until it's at a much more advanced stage, and then it's harder to treat. So that's our goal – to catch these lung cancers very early so we can treat them.” Alex Ingram, nurse practitioner

Nurse practitioner Alex Ingram handles the lung cancer screening and nodule management program in Lancaster and Chester. She works with people who are at high risk of lung cancer because of their smoking histories and encourages them to get annual lung scans.

She tells her patients that lung cancer grows quietly at first.

“You don't really have signs and symptoms of anything until it's at a much more advanced stage, and then it's harder to treat,” she said. “So that's our goal – to catch these lung cancers very early so we can treat them.”

The idea is to find lung cancer at Stage 1, when it’s small and hasn’t spread outside of the lungs. Steve Pettit’s was found a bit later than that, at Stage 3A, meaning it had spread to a lymph node on the same side of his chest as the tumor. But Tammy Pettit, who knows from sad personal experience the toll of lung cancer, focuses on the benefits of the screening program.

“My daddy had lung cancer and, unfortunately, when he found out it was too late – stage 4,” she said. “We caught it really early in Steve's situation. If it hadn’t been for the screening program, he probably never would have caught it this early.”

Pettit’s primary care doctor, Steve Culp, M.D., of Mackey Family Practice, referred him to Ingram because he was having trouble breathing and getting tired easily. But people don’t need to wait for symptoms to make an appointment with Ingram or any of the nurse practitioners in the screening program, and they don’t even need a doctor’s referral. People are eligible for lung cancer screening if they answer yes to all of the following:

“It's nice when I get to say, ‘I'll see you next year,’ but lately that hasn't been the case very often,” she said. She’s had 10 people receive lung cancer diagnoses after their scans. “Those conversations are pretty hard, but just letting them know, ‘If you would have never come and done this, you would still be walking around right now with lung cancer and not know – and then I might not see you next year.’ That's, I think, a big ‘wow’ for them.”

Edward McCutcheon, M.D., chief medical officer for the Lancaster Division, said the division has performed around 500 scans since the program was implemented in 2021.

“We don't want anybody to have cancer. But we do want to offer the screening opportunity for our patients,” he said. “The intention is to detect earlier.”

He praised Ingram’s efforts to reach more people who could benefit from the screening.

“Alex Ingram is local. She grew up in Lancaster County and became a nurse, did her training locally and eventually earned her nurse practitioner degree,” he said. “She is the perfect advanced practice provider to run this program.”

The Pettits praised her, too. Steve Pettit said that Ingram makes it a point to check up on him and see how he’s doing. Ingram has been wonderful, Tammy Pettit agreed.

“Anything that we have questions about, she’s been right there with us from day one,” she said. “You can tell she really has a love for her job and her patients.”

Like many of Ingram’s patients, the Pettits chose to go to Hollings in Charleston for treatment. Because it’s a three-hour drive from home, the Pettits typically head to Charleston the night before one of his appointments. A former employer who owns a home in Charleston lets them stay at his house. The Pettits are at Hollings first thing in the morning, where Steve Pettit sits for hours as the treatment is delivered, then they make the three-hour drive back home while Pettit is still sleepy from the Benadryl that he takes along with the chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Tammy Pettit has been lucky that her employer has allowed her to work from home, enabling her to balance work and caregiving.

“Cancer is a journey that so many people go on. I, for one, never thought this would be a journey my husband and I would face,” she said. “Even with the treatments causing many rough days for my husband, I do believe with everything in me that this screening program saves lives.”

Safety and Transportation Director Bryan Vaughn says it only took less than 10 minutes for the student to start feeling the effects of what was on the bus.

LANCASTER, S.C. (WBTV) - Over 40 students and a bus driver were exposed to an unknown substance on a school bus at Indian Land High School Wednesday.

A 14-year-old student lost consciousness, and other students showed symptoms of exposure.

According to authorities, the bus was near the bus office behind the stadium.

EMS personnel treated patients at the scene after taking them off the bus. A family member took the bus driver to the hospital.

Everyone exposed is stable.

Parents were called and later picked up their kids. All parents were advised to look after their kids and seek medical attention if more symptoms come. Parents are calling this situation in Indian Land High School bus concerning.

”You just don’t know where it’s coming from. You don’t know if it’s something in the bus. You don’t know if it’s something with the student,” says one parent.

The worry comes from a student passing out from a substance the school district and sheriff’s office have not identified yet.

”It is pretty concerning. I have grandkids and I get concerned with them going to school,” says that parent.

The situation and substance are still under investigation but we asked the district a few questions to try to find out how this happened.

“I want to assure parents that we are treating this matter seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation to determine what caused this exposure,” said Sheriff Barry Faile.

Lancaster School District is working with the sheriff’s office to get to the bottom of the situation. Safety and Transportation Director Bryan Vaughn says it only took less than 10 minutes for the student to start feeling the effects of what was on the bus.

”Anytime we have a student that has a medical emergency and we have other people that have likewise symptoms it’s a concern,” he explains.

WBTV’s South Carolina. reporter Morgan Newell asked Vaughn if they believe someone could have gotten into the bus and put this substance on there intentionally. He says none of the information points to that.

”We feel like it was an isolated incident. We have cameras on the bus lot. We have fencing. So we have no reason to believe there was a security breach,” he says.

So now the district administrator waits as the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office works for answers.

”At this point we’re just gonna let the investigation play out,” he says.

Anyone with information about this case please call the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office at 803-283-3388.

Copyright 2022 WBTV. All rights reserved.