Bomb threat investigated at North Attleboro High School

January 27, 2016 11:44 am

By News Staff

Reporting by Ana Bottary

abotary@abc6.com

Two schools in North Attleboro sent kids home early Wednesday after a bomb threat similar to the dozens of others at schools across Massachusetts and Rhode Island last week.

Parents were scrambling to pick up their children after both the high school and middle school sent students home early.

A hug is all Nicole Smith wanted from her teenaged son after receiving an automated alert from North Attleboro High School saying there was a bomb threat.

"It is troubling, only because when I was a kid, we never had to worry about bomb threats or guns and knifes and everything in the schools. Now, our society is crazy," said Smith.

The situation left students a bit shaken up, but one tells ABC6 that after hearing about dozens of threats called into schools in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as others in the country over the past month, she wasn’t shocked by the threat.

"I wasn’t surprised, really, which is kind of sad, because, kids shouldn’t go to school and fear and know that there could be a bomb threat," said Lindsay Che.

Many parents had to drop everything they were doing to pick up their students. High schoolers were dismissed at 11:30, and due to the middle school’s close proximity, they were also dismissed. Public safety officials and bomb sniffing dogs flooded the school.

"It kind of disrupts the whole day. I missed the whole day of work because of it. My kids come first, so I came here," said parent, Alan Smith.

The North Attleboro Superintendent released a statement saying, in full:

"Today the North Attleborough High School received a bomb threat. This is similar to many recent threats that have been made across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Public Safety Officials are working closely with us. We are following our safety procedures and, as an added precaution to allow for a thorough investigation, we will be dismissing the High School. Due to its close proximity, the Middle School will also be dismissed. Please know there has been no threat to the MS.

The High School will be dismissed at 11:30 and Middle School at 12:15.

Further, there have been no threats to our Elementary schools. All Elementary schools have been informed and we will be following our normal schedule for dismissal.

Please know that these are all precautionary measures and the threshold investigation reveals that there is no immediate threat."

There is no word on whether this threat was actually linked to past bomb threats. Nothing was found, and both the high school and middle school will be open as scheduled on Thursday.