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BEDFORD, N.Y.— Fox Lane High School was successfully evacuated due to a “graffiti bomb threat” at the Bedford campus Thursday morning. All students and staff members were safe and accounted for, said Bedford Central School District Assistant Superintendent Mark Betz.
Students had been by the football field after leaving the school, but around 10:30 a.m. were allowed back inside after a search turned up nothing, Betz said. Earlier in the morning a handful of students who visited the second floor bathroom found a small piece of graffiti that was explained as an “explosion threat,” Betz explained. An email sent out by the district was time-stamped at 9:39 a.m.
“[The school] got their emergency response team together and communicated with us and got the police involved, and we determined that we should evacuate the building, call the county, and do a sweep of the building for any kind of devices or anything,” Betz said.
The students and staff were told of the need to evacuate through the public address system, and teachers led their individual classes out to previously designated areas, said Betz.
“We put kids outside, and we have students who need to be in a separate location moved to another building on the campus,” he said. “And any students uncomfortable because of the weather could be moved as well.”
The building was evacuated “within minutes,” Betz noted, as he explained the school plans these evacuations to occur in less than two minutes. Many seemed unhappy to have class interrupted.
“You would think high school students would take advantage of the situation, but they don’t," said Betz. "They take it very seriously. They, in fact, don’t like this because it interrupts their instruction. They want to be in the classes and don’t want to be pulled away.”
After students and staff returned to the building parents received an email to assure tthem all was well and not to be worried.
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