By Adam Swift
The Winthrop Police Department responded to Winthrop High School to investigate a potential threat directed toward the school community on Friday, April 3, which was later determined to be not credible.
At approximately 9:40 a.m., Winthrop Police responded to Winthrop High School for reports of a phoned-in threat against the school community. Police immediately responded to the school and conducted a search of the property, according to Police Chief John Goodwin.
Following a thorough review, investigators determined that there was no credible threat to the school community and no immediate safety risks to students or staff.
Out of an abundance of caution, Winthrop Police has extra patrols stationed at all schools in the district. Officers will remain at the schools for the remainder of the day.
At Monday night’s school committee meeting, Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard said the incident is still under investigation by the police.
“The high school received a phone call that was answered by one of the secretaries in the high school, and it was a phone call that was threatening in nature in terms of what was stated by the person on the other end of the phone,” said Howard.
Howard said once the call was received, administrators were notified and procedures and protocols the schools have been trained in were put in place.
The superintendent said a decision was made quickly to put the schools in a hold-in-place situation, and the police department also placed officers in all the schools.
“Our students and staff know when there is a hold in place that nobody leaves a classroom, the doors are shut and you stay in the classroom,” said Howard.
After about 90 minutes, Howard said it was determined that the threat was not credible, and the hold in place was lifted at the schools, but she said they remained on a heightened alert throughout the remainder of the day.
“We sent a message out to parents; the fastest way for us to get a message out to all parents is through email,” said Howard.