Greece Arcadia schools reopen after police investigate bomb threat
GREECE, N.Y. — Greece Arcadia high school and middle school resumed classes around 9:20 a.m. on Friday after being on a two-hour delay as police investigated a bomb threat.
The Greece Central School District website says they received an email with an anonymous threat on Friday morning. Parents got a robocall about the school delay around 6:50 a.m.
News10NBC’s crew at the scene saw a drone and multiple Greece Police and Monroe County Sheriff’s Officer cars.
Parents and school officials say the threat was deemed not credible. Some buses had already arrived at the school by the time the delay was announced, and the buses took the students to Greece Athena.
Emma Southcott, a Greece Arcadia senior, said this isn’t the first time that a threat has interrupted school.
“This is outrageous because this isn’t the first time this has happened here and this is crazy to me. …It’s definitely scary,” Southcott said.
Nathan Roman, a Greece Arcadia senior, said he heard about the delay by checking his phone.
“I went back home and then waited until school opened back up. So, came back here but I was a little bit scared to come but I’m good now,” Roman said.
District officials will provide an update on the investigation at 12:30 p.m.
The threat came in to a local television station around 6 a.m. The district immediately started evacuating and rerouting students.
The threat said, in part, that Greece failed to make s safe learning environment. It accuses the district of encouraging “mentally ill” and “degenerate” behavior for students, making reference to a fight that happened in February in a girl’s bathroom. The threat claims one of the students was transgender. Cell phone video of that fight went viral Thursday night.
The superintendent called this a hate crime.
“It is clear that this is being used for an agenda, whether it’s a personal or political agenda, it is being used. That fight that occurred was significant and ver, very upsetting and disturbing, and also I want to be very clear it involved minors, it involved minors that deserve respect and privacy. We don’t get to share videos and names and peoples personal identities out there,” Superintendent Kathleen Graupman said.
Graupman also said there have been more threats like this nationally and that they appear to be politically motivated. She said the district is working with police to find and prosecute the person or persons who sent the threat.
Investigators have not confirmed whether they have anyone in custody.
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