Multiple schools in Davis cleared after police sweep campuses, homes, library named in bomb threat
Police searched multiple Davis school campuses — as well as two homes of Davis Joint Unified School District employees — after bomb threats were made against the schools, as well as the district’s office and the Davis library Wednesday morning.
Police said at 8 a.m. that the conducted searches turned up no such devices, and that “campuses have been deemed clear and schools are open for classes.”
Police and district officials originally announced that three schools — Cesar Chavez Elementary, Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High and Davis Senior High School — were targeted in the bomb threat emailed to officials about 2:20 a.m. The email included threats to the Mary L. Stephens branch of the Yolo County Library system, which is adjacent to two schools, and the school district’s main office at 526 B St.
In an updated news release, police said they had searched the three schools, as well as North Davis Elementary, which is near Davis High and the library, and the Davis School for Independent Study, which is housed at the district offices while Yolo County sheriff’s deputies searched the library at 315 E. 14th St.
Those searches, eight sites in all, came up with no such explosives, police said. Officials did not say the names of the district employees whose homes were searched.
“The Davis Police Department and the Davis Joint Unified School District take these criminal threats seriously and are closely working together to ensure the safety of students, educators, and the community,” Davis police said after the searches, adding that officers “will pursue every investigative lead to identify those responsible for these criminal threats.”
“We know these incidents cause a substantial amount of concern and even trauma. These investigations can be very complex, and we will provide timely updates as more information is known to us,” officers said. “The community can feel confident that Davis PD will continue to use all available resources to ensure the safety of our community.”
A spokesman for the Police Department did not return calls about the incident Wednesday, though officials said Davis police, Yolo deputies and other law enforcement in the area would step up patrols around all schools in the district as detectives work to identify the source of the threats.
Local authorities also are coordinating their efforts with the FBI, police said.
Davis Joint Unified operates 17 campuses in all — nine elementary schools, four junior highs and a high school, as well as independent studies and the Da Vinci Charter Academy and a related junior high program. In all, the district educates roughly 8,300 students and has 800 people on staff.
Officials said in a bulletin to the community just after 6:30 a.m. that an email was sent to several different individuals “indicating that bombs had been placed at the homes of Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) employees.”
“The language and content of the threats have some similarity to the previous bomb threat incidents at the Yolo County Library in Davis,” officials said.
In August, a bomb threat containing anti-LGBTQ hate speech prompted authorities to evacuate the library and forced a shelter-in-place for the nearby schools. It was the third threat against the library that week, authorities said at the time.
In February, Oliver Wendell Holmes was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat sent through social media.
A few months later, the school was evacuated again when officials found a written bomb threat on campus. Students were taken to a nearby park for early pickup.
