UPDATE: March 20, 2009 03:51 PM
LAUREL, Del.- Authorities say a bomb threat called into the Laurel School District early Friday morning has been deemed unfounded. The bomb threat had prompted school officials to send students from all of the district’s four schools home while police combed the buildings for suspicious items.
The one school that police particularly focused in on was Laurel Senior High School. Sgt. Derrick Calloway of the Laurel Police Department said a K-9 search of the building picked up a suspicious item inside a locker. Based on the K-9 alert it was decided at that point to have the Delaware State Police Bomb unit respond and clear the area. The area was searched by the bomb unit and the FBI and as a result was determined to be safe, Calloway said.
According to Calloway, at around 8:15 a.m. an unknown caller phoned the school district and claimed there were two suspicious packages at two of the district’s four schools. Based on the information received, the Laurel Police Department, with the assistance of the school administration, evacuated the schools.
The schools were then searched by bomb-sniffing K-9 dogs from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office, the Ocean City Police Department, Dover Air Force Base and Delaware State Police. Three of the schools were searched and found to be safe. It was at Laurel Senior High School where a K-9 alerted on the locker and the bomb squad was called in to assist.
Because of the threat, all of the students in the district’s schools were sent home as a precautionary measure while police searched the school buildings, according to Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Schenck.
Schenck said students who left any important items in classrooms due to the evacuation could pick them up on Monday.
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