A report of a handwritten note—which included the word "bomb"—on a bathroom wall at Fox Lane Middle School led to an evacuation and a heavy police presence there Tuesday afternoon, the district confirmed.
"As a precautionary measure, all middle school students were evacuated to the high school and their parents were notified immediately," Carole LaColla, district clerk, said in a statement issued at about 3:25 p.m. "Bedford Police and the [Westchester] County bomb squad personnel arrived to 'sweep' the building. When school officials received an 'all-clear' from the Bedford Police, the middle school students returned to their school and prepared for their regular dismissal."
The commotion caused school buses at the Fox Lane campus to run about 15 minutes behind schedule, which delayed the vehicles from arriving on time for dismissal at the elementary schools. The district said parents were contacted through the all-call notification system.
"We thank parents for their patience during this incident and these delays," the statement reads. "We also thank our middle school students and staff for a very orderly response to this incident."
While bomb threats at the middle school are not new - Tuesday's incident was the second of its kind in less than two years - the most recent one is the first since the mass shooting at a Newtown, CT elementary school that left scores of students and teachers dead.
Tom Auchterlonie contributed to this article.
"Stay calm, pray, get near the school, text child, wait! I have faith that the school personnel will do their best to keep the kids as safe as possible and take every precaution necessary to do so."
We all want our children safe. The school did right. The author did not.
I added in the reference and I have now inserted a contributing byline. The reason why is because, from my experience, these type of scares have happened multiple times. However, since the tragedy last month, there has been a lot of talk in Bedford Central about security and the wellbeing of students, from whether there should be a police presence to whether the district's capital plan should have changes. When I added the reference, I thought it was important due to the context of what the district and the community are facing with the issue. If you were offended, that was not my intention. Feel free to email me at tom@patch.com if you have further questions.
You are a good writer. I'm just asking that in the future, ALL reporters think before making a reference to Newtown.
Force people to parent their kids.