Students at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School were evacuated Tuesday morning after the School District of Philadelphia confirmed bomb threats had been called in against the campus and a few other district properties. As of about 10:50 a.m., students at Masterman were reported safe while police continued searching the grounds.
The district said it became aware of bomb threats affecting a handful of its properties, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Officials did not disclose how many other properties were involved, which schools received threats, or whether any other Philadelphia schools needed to be evacuated as a result. The district also declined to say whether any of the threats were considered credible, per the same report.
Masterman sits at 1699 Spring Garden Street in the city's Spring Garden community within the broader Fairmount area, a campus that serves roughly 1,200 students across grades 5 through 12 — about 740 in middle school and 460 in high school, according to Masterman's own school profile. Philadelphia Police and the district's Office of School Safety were both continuing to investigate the threats Tuesday, and the station noted it was still working to learn more as the situation developed.
A School With National Standing Now Facing Disruption
The evacuation lands at a school with an outsized academic reputation. Masterman was ranked the No. 8 high school nationally and No. 1 in Pennsylvania in the 2025–2026 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, according to Homes.com. That standing has made Masterman widely regarded as Philadelphia's premier public magnet school, with admission requiring a competitive academic application process open to students citywide.
The district's safety guidance offers general information about school safety and links to emergency procedures.
Part of a Wider Pattern of School Threats Across the Region
Tuesday's incident is not an isolated one for the district or the region. Baldi Middle School in Northeast Philadelphia was evacuated on the first day of classes after phoned-in bomb threats led to a police search and an 11-year-old girl was taken into custody, Metro Philadelphia reported. And in Pollock lockdown left students safe, Robert B. Pollock Elementary went into a secured lockdown and structured dismissal in May after administrators received threat reports, with district officials and Philadelphia Police called in to help oversee the response.
Law enforcement and federal officials have pointed to a broader regional rise in hoax “swatting” threats that force large-scale emergency mobilizations and disrupt school operations across Pennsylvania. Just days earlier, a threat against Maple Point Middle School forced two Neshaminy-area schools into remote learning.
Criminal Penalties and Proposed Changes
Pennsylvania law treats these calls as serious crimes, not pranks. Under Title 18 Section 2706 of the state code, certain threats that divert occupants are graded as third-degree felonies. The seven-year maximum prison term and $15,000 fine are proposed penalties in Senate Bill 96.
State lawmakers have moved to go even further. Senate Bill 96, introduced during the 2025–2026 legislative session, would establish a dedicated third-degree felony offense specifically for threats against schools and expand restitution to cover lost staff wages and unused meal costs, per the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which has also flagged concerns about the restitution burden such a law could place on juvenile offenders.
As of Tuesday morning, neither the number nor identity of the other threatened properties had been released, and investigators had not said whether any of the threats were deemed credible. Philadelphia Police and the Office of School Safety continued their investigation into the source of the threats.
