By HOLLY GASKILL
Approximately 70 Indiana schools received bomb threats Monday, including neighboring Adams and Allen counties.
This prompted all three Wells districts to issue statements to the public, assuring their schools had not received these threats. Each Wells district also retained its regular schedules.
In a Facebook post, Southern Wells Superintendent Trent Lehman wrote: “The police believe it is a SCAM call as 70 schools total received the same threat. SW has not received any threats. SW has taken extra precautions and had security and maintenance check all buses, surroundings outside, doors, etc. and nothing concerning or suspicious has been found thus we have continued with a normal school day.”
According to a statement from Adams Central schools, the threat was sent via email and was “not considered to be customized to Adams Central.” The statement reported the specific threat read, “There are explosives inside every school in your district.”
Adams Central, South Adams and North Adams schools evacuated their buildings and reunited students with their families during the middle of the school day. In a statement Monday afternoon, North Adams said the decision to evacuate was made “out of an abundance of caution.”
Similarly, East Allen County Schools questioned the validity of the threats in a statement: “Despite the widespread nature of these threats, no suspicious or explosive devices have been discovered in any of the schools, and there is no evidence supporting the validity of these threats. Furthermore, law enforcement has informed us that similar threats have been reported in other municipalities across the state and the country in recent weeks, with no established validity in those cases either.”
The Indiana State Police also issued a statement regarding their investigation and assistance with evacuation, but no source of the threats has been reported at the time of print.
holly@news-banner.com
