Frankfort-Schuyler schools close, Waterville delayed in response to fake threats Tuesday
The Frankfort-Schuyler schools were closed Tuesday in response to a fake threat, and Waterville students remained on their morning buses while bomb-sniffing dogs searched district schools.
Nothing suspicious was found in either district, according to local law enforcement. Both were apparent victims of another wave of swatting incidents — false calls or emails about threats to schools — adding to a trend seen across the country.
The Mohawk Valley saw several similar incidents March 30 when Rome police responded to a report of shots fired at Rome Free Academy; the Oneida County 911 Center received a call about shots fired at Thomas R. Proctor High School; and Herkimer County 911 received a similar call. All the reports turned out to be hoaxes.
State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, and Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, D-Marcy, have introduced legislation targetting swatting. It would create a new crime of making a threat of mass violence toward a school, college, place of worship, business or gathering of more than 25 people. Punishments would be less harsh for minors and for students age 18 and older who make threats against their own school.
On Tuesday morning, Waterville Superintendent Jennifer Spring saw an email with a bomb threat and called the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police at 5:20 a.m., according to a letter on the district website and a release from the sheriff’s office. More than 40 superintendents across the state received a similar email threat, Spring said.
In Waterville, officers, including K-9 units, completed school searches by about 8:40 a.m. without finding any bombs, Spring wrote.
More: False threats to Rome, Utica, Herkimer schools draw police response: Trend seen across NY
More: Fake threats of violence target multiple New York school districts
“Investigators did not believe the threat was credible but the searches were done out of an abundance of caution,” Spring wrote.
Road patrol, investigators and K-9 units from the sheriff’s office searched Waterville Junior/Senior High School and Memorial Park Elementary School, according to the sheriff’s office. They were assisted on the scene by the City of Utica Police Department Explosive Detection K-9 Unit and New York State Police.
A statement on the Frankfort-Schuyler website says the district received a threat against its buildings and officials, in consultation with law enforcement, decided to close for the day “with an abundance of care” to help local and state police make sure the schools were safe.
Several other districts in New York also received threats March 30, including Brighton and Brockport in the Rochester area, dozens of districts in Westchester and Putnam counties and several districts in the Albany area. None of the threats turned out to be credible, but they did lead to disruption and lockdowns.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Fake threats disrupt Frankfort-Schuyler, Waterville schools Tuesday
