Sandy Hook Elementary School Evacuated, Kids Sent Home Following Bomb Threat
MONROE, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was evacuated Wednesday morning following a bomb threat.
According to Monroe police Lt. Brian McCauley, the school was evacuated as a precaution after the threat was called in just after 9:30 a.m.
McCauley said the building and grounds were checked, and no evidence of danger was found.
A bomb squad was called in from the state police to help sweep the building, CBS 2's Lou Young reported.
The school was dismissed early following the threat, and students were moved to nearby Jockey Hollow Middle School to be picked up by their parents, said Nancy Bartosik, with the Monroe superintendent's office.
As of 1 p.m., it was believed all of the kids had been picked up, McCauley told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.
The school issued an automated voicemail message to parents following the threat, assuring them that "...all students and all staff are absolutely 100 percent safe."
In the message, Newtown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph V. Erardi Jr. said the evacuation was due to a "low to no-threat bomb scare."
Erardi also invited parents to a meeting Wednesday night at at the Newtown High School audtirorium for "any parent who looks to better understand what we did and why we did the evacuation." The meeting is set to start at 7 p.m., Erardi said.
When asked if the bomb threat was a prank by a kid, McCauley told Schneidau, "We hope that's what it is, but the investigation will hopefully turn up what's going on with it."
Newtown residents fumed at the news of the threat, Young reported.
"I think it's awful after what all the school's been through over there a couple of years ago," said Newtown resident Phil Griffin. "I think it's just despicable that anyone would do that."
"Newtown has had enough," said Susan Richter. "We're trying to get ourselves back together again and get strong again, and any time anybody hits us it's like hitting a wound with salt."
The school in Monroe, formerly known as Chalk Hill Middle School, was renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School after students from the original Sandy Hook were transferred there following the demolition of their school in Newtown.
The original Sandy Hook was the site of the December 2012 mass shooting that took the lives of 20 first-grade students and six educators.
Classes are expected to resume as normal on Thursday. Counselors will be on hand at the school for parents and students.
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