Hart's Hill Elementary School in Whitesboro was evacuated Wednesday after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, sending deputies and bomb-sniffing dogs through the building while students and staff waited outside. No explosives or hazardous items turned up, and officials say the building was never actually in danger. But Hart's Hill wasn't alone — three more schools across the county were hit with threats or precautionary lockouts within roughly the same window that morning.
A special patrol officer notified the Oneida County Sheriff's Office around 11:20 a.m. that Hart's Hill had received a bomb threat, according to syracuse.com. The school was evacuated while deputies and K-9 teams from the sheriff's office and New York State Police searched the building, the outlet reported, and no explosives were found before it was deemed safe. The Yorkville Police Department and State Police also assisted at the scene, syracuse.com noted.
The Whitesboro Central School District confirmed that all students and staff were safely evacuated Wednesday and that there was no immediate threat, according to WKTV. The district said it was one of multiple area school districts to receive anonymous phone calls threatening school buildings that day, per the same report. Newport Dispatch reported that the Oneida County Sheriff's Office stayed in constant contact with Whitesboro Central School District administration throughout the incident.
Three Utica Schools Also Disrupted
The same morning, bomb threats prompted lockdowns or evacuations at Hughes Elementary, Notre Dame Elementary and Tilton School at the House of the Good Shepherd in Utica, according to syracuse.com. Hughes Elementary received a phone call shortly before 11:30 a.m. from someone claiming there was a bomb inside the building, the outlet reported, and the school was placed on lockdown while police searched with bomb-sniffing dogs. The sheriff's office sent its own K-9 unit to help Utica police search Hughes Elementary, syracuse.com said.
Jones Elementary School in Utica was placed on lockout as a precaution even though it did not receive a bomb threat itself, the outlet reported. WKTV separately reported that Hughes Elementary and Notre Dame Elementary were placed under lockdown after separate bomb threats, and that a bomb threat led to the evacuation of Tilton School at The House of the Good Shepherd.
Law enforcement and trained personnel swept the Hart's Hill building and grounds and found no hazardous items before clearing it for reentry, according to Utica Phoenix. The sheriff's office reported that students, staff and the community were never in danger, per Newport Dispatch.
Investigation Involves FBI
Investigation Involves FBI Investigators are now working to determine who made the threats, and the probe will involve the Utica Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division along with the FBI, syracuse.com reported. The involved agencies are continuing to investigate the threats, according to Newport Dispatch, though no further details on a suspect or a possible connection between the incidents at the different schools have been released.
