3 Massachusetts High Schools Receive ‘Similar’ Threats, 2 Close
Threats have forced two area high schools to close Monday, according to police and officials at Brockton High School and Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, which are located less than eight miles away from each other.
Cardinal Spellman High School, also located in Brockton, received a threat too, but remained in session. Both a Brockton Public Schools spokeswoman and a statement from Cardinal Spellman note that the threats made to all three schools are of a very similar nature.
The threat emailed to Whitman-Hanson school officials warned that there was a bomb on a bus and that an armed individual would be at the high school Monday, according to Whitman Police Chief Scott Benton.
Benton said that, following state protocol, all the district’s buses were shut down and searched, with members of the FBI, State Police bomb technicians, and fire and police crews on hand. The scene was deemed clear within an hour and a half “with minimum disruption,’’ Benton said. The buses were then sent to pick up students at the district’s other schools.
“Due to the timing of the receipt of the email, and the scope of the investigation, classes at the high school only have been cancelled,’’ Whitman-Hanson regional school district superintendent Ruth C. Gilbert-Whitner said in a statement.
Hanson Police, who Benton said had jurisdiction over the gun threats, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Monday’s emailed threat was the third Brockton High School has received in less than a month. Students there were evacuated and sent home on Monday as school officials worked with state and local police to investigate the threats.
“These threats have been disruptive, not only to the Brockton community, but to several other high schools in the area. We are working together to identify the perpetrator(s) and return to the routines of educating our students,’’ Brockton Public Schools Superintendent Kathleen A. Smith said in a statement.
Students at Cardinal Spellman High School remain in class Monday. The threat to that school came in when school was already in session, according to the school’s Facebook page.
After-school activities have been canceled, however, and school officials are arranging to have a police presence on campus this afternoon. Officials there “do not believe there is any credible threat,’’ but said parents could pick up their children at any point in the day.
“We believe that it is in the best interest of our students to remain in session today. The school building is tightly secured, as always, with a ‘stay in place’ protocol,’’ the post reads.
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