Police give all clear after email threat shuts down Wareham schools

WAREHAM, Mass. — Three Wareham schools were placed in lockdown and then evacuated Monday morning after a school administrator received an email threatening students.

After the superintendent alerted police, officers immediately locked down Wareham High School, Wareham Middle School and Minot Forest Elementary School, the only schools in the district with students inside them Monday. July 10 marked the first day of summer school.

"Safety was the paramount objective for those kids," said Police Chief Kevin Walsh.

Tactical teams started searching the schools thoroughly, looking for an "unknown person or gunman." On Sky25, police could be seen armed with rifles walking into Minot Forest Elementary School, more cruisers showed up moving quickly with lights and sirens on. As the schools were searched, students were evacuated on buses, taken to the Wareham YMCA.

"At this point, we are still doing a final search...I'm at 99.99 (percent) sure right now no one's in the school and everybody is safe," said Walsh.

At 4:33 p.m., after finishing second and third searches of the schools, police gave the all clear.

Walsh said the operation went smoothly overall and it was a methodical search.

MORE ON THE EMAIL THREAT

Police said the email was very specific, saying the person was hidden inside a school and threatened to shoot people at the school. However, no school was ever named, which is why they locked down three schools, said Walsh.

The police chief said they will try to track the email and plan to prosecute to the fullest.

In the past, there have been threats made via email to many Massachusetts schools at once, and it turned out to be fake. Walsh said that unlike that series of threats, the one on Monday was more detailed.

>>MORE: More Massachusetts schools receive threats

"Every threat we have to put it on a certain level. This one was at the top of all levels because it was specific, up until the point of what school," he said.

Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood said she had never seen a threat response to this degree.

"We take everything very seriously," she said.

There will be school Tuesday, and Shaver-Hood said it was be business as usual, with safety always being a priority.

Walsh thanked the departments from neighboring towns that responded, along with the cooperation of parents.

Cox Media Group