Utah, May 25, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Just two days after Murray High School was evacuated over a bomb threat, two more Utah schools received similar threats Wednesday morning, forcing the evacuation of thousands of students and the cancellation of classes.
Lone Peak High School, located at 10189 N. 4800 West in Highland, was evacuated just after school started, according to tweets from Lone Peak Police. The department also tweeted that although police immediately felt the threat did not appear to be credible, automated calls and messages were sent to parents and students were sent home for the rest of the day.
Multiple agencies responded and a sweep of the school did not produce any threat. Students will be able to return to school on Thursday.
Clayton Middle School, located at 1471 S. 1800 East in Salt Lake City, also received a bomb threat Wednesday. Several agencies, including Salt Lake City Police and Fire, Unified Fire Department and South Salt Lake Fire Department responded just after 11 a.m.
The school was evacuated but students were kept at the school and allowed back in the building a couple of hours later. Salt Lake City Police Det. Cody Lougy said they knew the threat did not appear to be credible almost immediately.
“We want to use precaution as always,” Lougy said. “But with all the nationwide threats lately, we are more aware of the possibility it may not be credible.”
Parents of Clayton Middle School students were sent a notice by email after the students were let back into the school:
“This notice is to inform you that Clayton Middle School received a bomb threat today that has been determined to be NON-CREDIBLE by the police. The building has been searched and there is nothing out of place. Your student’s safety is always our first concern. So as an extra precaution, the police and police dogs will be in the building to assure your student’s safety.”
The three different bomb threats in Utah appear to be part of a mass of threats that have been appearing across the country since Monday.
The threats have been coming by way of automated “robocalls” and appear to be at randomly selected schools. By Wednesday afternoon nearly 100 different schools in 21 states across the U.S. and nearly two dozen schools in the U.K. had been affected.
So far, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming all received the calls on Monday and North Dakota and Wisconsin and Utah so far have reported similar threats during the new rash of calls on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time a wave of automated threats have popped up across the country. Schools in New York and Los Angeles experienced similar events back in December 2015.
The FBI told NBC News they are aware of the threats and said they will remain in touch with their law enforcement partners to provide assistance if needed, however, local agencies will be conducting most of their own investigations.
