PERRYSBURG – Bomb threats received via email at three county school districts were not credible.
The emails were received in Perrysburg, Northwood and Elmwood school districts.
According to an email sent Sunday evening by Perrysburg Schools Superintendent Tom Hosler, three of the district’s school received an email from an account that claimed to be a Russian organization targeting American schools with a bomb threat.
The nature of the message was very general, and the time of the threat indicated in the email had passed earlier in the day, Hosler wrote.
Upon receiving the emails, Perrysburg Schools administrators contacted the Perrysburg Police Department, which initiated an investigation and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The police department reported that it had no information suggesting that the threat was credible, he said.
There was a similar situation involving threats last week across Texas and the FBI also found no credibility in these messages, he wrote.
Classes will be held Monday as scheduled as it has been determined the school buildings are safe for students and employees. The police department and the district have heightened security out of an abundance of caution.
“The Perrysburg Police Division and Perrysburg School District have an excellent relationship and take the safety and security of students and school employees very seriously. Our threat response is thorough and based upon national best practices. Ensuring a safe school environment for students and employees is paramount. Because each situation is unique, the school officials’ and law enforcement’s actions and responses may vary,” Hosler wrote.
District administrators stress the importance of reporting anything that seems suspicious.
Northwood Superintendent Jason Kozina shared an email with parents and posted on the district’s Facebook page that the Northwood Police Department helped the district respond to “a rather odd threat.” “
“While the email certainly seems fake and had no specifics to any school district, Northwood Police assisted us with our safety protocols to search the building and ensure nothing was concerning locally,” Kozina wrote.
Elmwood Local Schools Superintendent Tony Borton said he sent a brief community-wide email notification of the threat and that officials did not find it to be credible.
The Ohio School Safety Center sent out the following statement:
The Ohio School Safety Center (OSSC) is aware of online threats of violence that have been made to Ohio schools that are similar to threats made in other states recently. The OSSC is actively working with the Statewide Terrorism Analysis and Crime Center and Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as schools and local law enforcement to support their efforts in investigation of these threats.
While some of the threats have been determined to be false through law enforcement investigation, the OSSC takes all threats to schools seriously and recommends that schools and first responders do the same.
