SANDY, Utah, Jan. 4, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Alta High School was evacuated as a precaution after a report Wednesday afternoon of a suspicious bag.
The bag was left by a former student, Sgt. Greg Moffitt, Sandy City Police, told Gephardt Daily.
“At about 12:30, we had a former student come into the school carrying a bag of some sort that was left behind when he left the school,” Moffitt said.
A faculty member contacted the resource officer about the bag, and “they didn’t have a lot of knowledge about why the bag was there and why the student was there,” he said.
So the resource officer, the Canyons School District and the school administration “decided that we best to err on the side of caution,” Moffitt said.
“So what ultimately ended up happening is, with not knowing the contents of that bag, it had been removed from the school and was outside of the school, but they decided that it would be best to go ahead and release the students for the day.”
That happened at about 1:30 p.m., Moffitt said. Students who drove to school were allowed to leave in their vehicles, and those who walked were dismissed from the side of the school opposite the bag’s location, he said. A parent pickup location was also established at a nearby church.
A bomb squad was called in and used a robot with X-ray capabilities to scan the bag, Moffitt said.
It was “able to determine that there didn’t appear to be an explosive, and they ended up physically searching that bag and were able to deem that there were no explosives in the bag, so the area has been cleared.
“It’s been deemed safe for residents, faculty, students, and the investigation into the whole circumstances ongoing with our detectives and school resource officers, so that’s where we’re at,” Moffitt said.
