Schools evacuated on threat

Eric Poole, Ledger Staff
09/17/2009

ELLWOOD CITY - Lincoln High School and Hartman Elementary School were evacuated Wednesday in response to a threat of violence.

Frank Aloi, superintendent of Ellwood City Area School District, said a student found a threatening message in a third-floor boys restroom at the high school around 10 a.m. Aloi declined to reveal exactly what was said in the message, but said it merited action by school administrators.

"We felt it was specific enough to implement our crisis plan," Aloi said.

After seeing the message, the student went to a teacher, and the teacher informed a principal, who called for the high school to be cleared. Hartman was evacuated as well, in a precautionary measure, Aloi said.

In accordance with the district's crisis plan, formulated last year after students were left outside without jackets on a frigid winter day, students were sent to churches near the high school.

Those students were overseen by teachers and administrators during the evacuation period.

School officials called Ellwood City police and a private security firm that handles calls for the Grove City-based Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV.

The private security firm has a bomb-sniffing dog service, but the district also called the Beaver County Sheriff's Department, which arrived with its own dog before the security firm's dog could reach the school.

Neither the dog nor the search teams found any bomb, and students went back into classrooms later in the school day.

Aloi said the threat mentioned a specific time, which had passed by early Wednesday afternoon.

Eric Poole can be reached online at epoole@ellwoodcityledger.com.


©Ellwood City Ledger 2009

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