Hoboken Middle School went into lockdown Thursday after the school received a phone call considered a potential threat, prompting police to clear nearby Church Square Park and move recess students to another location. The Rue and Calabro school buildings, along with Hudson School, were placed under shelter-in-place orders as a precaution. Other than Hudson School, the district's remaining schools and preschool sites were reported unaffected.
According to hobokengirl.com, Superintendent Christine Johnson said in an email that the call was not directed at any specific person. The outlet reported that Hoboken school officials were in communication with the Hoboken Police Department as the situation unfolded, and that middle schoolers who had been outside for recess were relocated while the park was emptied out.
The A.J. Demarest Building, which houses Hoboken Middle School, was placed on lockdown, and streets between Fourth and Sixth streets and between Bloomfield and Garden streets were closed, Daily Voice reported. Police urged residents to avoid the area while the investigation continued, and students were kept inside as a precaution, per the outlet's reporting. Authorities said additional details about the threat were not immediately available, and that updates would follow as more information became available.
A Familiar Pattern for Hoboken Schools
Thursday's lockdown is not an isolated event for the district. Just three weeks earlier, on October 8, Hoboken High School, Brandt Elementary School, and Wallace Elementary School were placed on lockdown after a threat forced a shelter-in-place order at the high school around 2:45 p.m., with two elementary schools following as a precaution, per an earlier report from the same account.
During that October incident, a Nixle alert went out telling residents to avoid the area, confirming the lockdown at all three schools, the report noted. Police went door to door searching Hoboken High School and released students a half hour after regular dismissal, according to the same account.
That day's homecoming football game went on as planned after police cleared the high school, Patch reported. The outlet also noted that several other schools in New Jersey and around the country, including in Philadelphia and Virginia, had received phone threats in the three days before the October 8 lockdown.
Swatting Concerns and an Earlier Phone Threat
Patch later reported that schools in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Virginia were locked down that same week due to suspected swatting, and that a similar incident at Hoboken High School in February involved a phone threat.
In that February 10 incident, Hoboken High School was locked down after police investigated a called-in potential threat and blocked surrounding streets to traffic, according to a report from hobokengirl.com. The lockdown was eventually lifted after police determined there was no threat at that time, with students dismissed in a controlled process, the outlet reported. A Nixle alert said the high school had been cleared and that there was no threat.
As with the earlier incidents this fall, the outcome of Thursday's investigation into the call at Hoboken Middle School had not been confirmed. Hoboken school officials said they remained in contact with police as the situation developed.
