A bomb threat was called into Somerville High School shortly after the start of the school day at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
The school was placed under a “secure and hold,” which was lifted at 10:45 a.m. after Somerville Police searched the school and found no credible threat.
A secure-and-hold approach to an incident means students and staff continue their work while an investigation of the threat take place. Teaching and learning continue inside classrooms, but no one except people participating in a safety assessment is allowed in hallways or common spaces, according to school officials.
The threat came less than two weeks after a bomb threat was called into the Somerville Public Library and shut down a drag story hour event. The school is next to the library on Central Hill. The events do not appear to be related.
Community members were alerted to the threat via an email from Somerville Public Schools central administration. The limited lockdown was “out of an abundance of caution,” officials said, asking “parents and guardians not to come to the school while investigations continue.”
While residents are startled, they are not surprised. “They would happen all of the time,” said Tayla Boos, a Somerville High School graduate in 2009 who suspects the threats come from students trying to avoid tests. During her senior-year finals week, a bomb threat was called in every day, she said, and “we stopped taking them seriously.”
At the start of the school year two kids were charged in Methuen for making a bomb threat, which shook the community. Bomb threats are a felony crime in Massachusetts, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Somerville police said they would continue to investigate and that officers will be present on the school grounds through the end of the day.
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