Third Bogus Threat Made to Princeton Public Schools in a Week
For the third time in the last week, a fake threat was called in to a school in the Princeton Public Schools district, this time at the John Witherspoon Middle School.
This morning at 10:45 a.m., the John Witherspoon School main office received a computer generated telephone call reporting a bomb in the school building.
Students were moved to the high school gymnasium while officers investigated the incident. Police searched the building and surrounding area, the school was deemed safe, and students and staff were allowed to return just after 1 p.m. Officers will remain in the area throughout the day, police said.Last week, the high school and Riverside Elementary received similar threats. Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane issued the following statement after the latest call today:
Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff and Students,
I have to share with you once again that one of our schools recently received a bomb threat. At 10:45 a.m. today, a computer-generated phone message was sent to John Witherspoon Middle School. The police were immediately notified, and students and staff calmly evacuated the building and walked to the PAC Center at the high school. The police K-9 unit was brought to the school to check for any possibilities of a bomb. Simultaneously, all schools throughout the district were directed to implement Shelter In Place protocols, which keep all students indoors and maintain heightened levels of security.
The students and staff of JW will likely remain at the high school for the next hour or so as the police undertake their investigation. I will send another message to our community when that investigation is complete.
I appreciate your continued patience and support.
Sincerely,
Steve Cochrane
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
There are no bombs. There never were.
At some point, we have to hold the authorities accountable for wasting resources. The mere existence of a threat does not logically mean it must be acted upon.
Just because there are children involved does mean there’s not such thing as an acceptable level of risk – it’s OK to flat-out ignore these hoaxes.
Ptowner: are you joking? With all the horrific school massacres and shootings we have had in the past few years, the authorities have no choice but to be cautious. Your anger should be directed at the sick scum who make or engineer these calls. They are domestic terrorists, they are disrupting the education of the children not to mention the costs involved. The one day that the “authorities” ignore these calls or threats will be the day when some sick twisted psychopath will have planted a bomb.