9 schools in New Jersey receive bomb and mass shooting threats

Police responded to bomb threats against schools in nine districts in northern New Jersey Tuesday morning, according to the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said that Bergenfield, Clifton, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Garfield, Hackensack, Leonia, New Milford, Teaneck and Tenafly had received threats in North Jersey.

Over 20 schools in 11 New Jersey towns were placed on lockdown or were evacuated Tuesday after threats were made against them.

In addition to the bomb threats, at least one school was threatened with being targeted for a mass shooting, police said.

Portsmouth High School also received a bomb threat Tuesday.

A number of threats have been made in school districts across the state, NECN and the Boston Globe are reporting.

“At this time there is no indication as to the validity of the threat”, Bracken said.

Metzler said that 1,457 Fair Lawn students were evacuated and walked to nearby Memorial Middle School while the department’s bomb-sniffing dog swept the high school.

Schools remained in session but there was a police presence, including plain clothes detectives and K-9 units at various schools as a precautionary measure.

Tuesday’s threats of violence, which affected dozens of schools in at least six states in the East and Midwest, were just the latest in a rash of threats against US schools in recent weeks.

In Groton, where the Florence Roche School was also evacuated, students were taken to Nissitissit Middle School in Pepperell, where parents were welcome to pick them up.

Police believe the threats last week may be related, but have no motive for the threats.

Some of the threats were made in calls to districts after 8 a.m. Tuesday, while others were made the night before and left on voicemail.

Golden Valley High School was also locked down because of its proximity to the two schools, Principal Paul Helman said. Other schools received similar threats.

On Tuesday afternoon, an FBI spokesman based in Salt Lake City said the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation was taking the lead. In New Hampshire, one was written on a bathroom wall; another in an automated phone message. Like all the other schools and threats before it, however, all of the Pennsylvania locations were deemed clear and the threat non-credible.