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Update: All quiet at Cumberland High School after alert

4:20 PM Fri, Nov 20, 2009 |
News staff    Email

By Michael McKinney
and Maria Armental
Journal Staff Writers

CUMBERLAND, R.I. -- Graffiti involving a bomb threat, discovered this week in two bathrooms at Cumberland High School, put the school district on high alert.

But there were no problems reported Friday as staff at a table checkpoint searched high school students, who had been instructed to bring their items in clear bags, the schools superintendent said.

Police Chief John Desmarais said late Friday morning that no one has been charged.

"We are still conducting interviews. We have some leads that we need to track down," said the chief, who said the graffiti was found in one bathroom on Monday and another on Thursday.

Supt. Donna A. Morelle said Thursday that discovery of graffiti forced district officials to evacuate the campus and cancel all after-school activities and sports events Thursday to search the students' lockers.

"Very uneventful," Morelle said of how things went Friday morning. "It went pretty seamlessly."

Morelle said students who did bring items with them had them in zip-lock type bags or plastic bedding-type bags.

Morelle said Friday that plans were for school to go on as normal, with a state debate tournament scheduled to go on over the weekend.

Monday's threats, Morelle said, were found to be a "hoax."

Morelle said members of the state fire marshal's office -- and a bomb squad -- had searched the high school Monday, and "we had no evidence of any paraphernalia in the building." She said a search Thursday again found no concerns.

On Thursday evening, Morelle refused to give more information on the nature of the threats, saying that district parents had already been notified.

Earlier versions of this report were published at 8:06 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

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Comments

Onwatch said:

Does anyone have any specifics on this?



Doubletalk said:

Of course it went "seamlessly" - how many kids were actually in school????



Onwatch said:

Can any of those district parents tell us what it was, please?



mom said:

My son stayed home today as did many of his friends. the lack of information form the school about this is alarming. If there is enough of a threat to warrant no purses and backpacks, then give me details, or my child will be staying home.



Onwatch said:

With a tournament being held there tomorrow, don't you think the parents of debaters coming in from all over the state would also like to know the nature of the threat?



Onwatch said:

I don't blame you, mom. This happened at our school a couple of years ago, with a lockdown, and there was never any news of what it actually said on the walls of OUR school. If its news, then its news and we should all know what the threat actually was. I will make an educated guess and say it must have been a threat by someone who claimed there would be a bomb in the building. But then why the plastic bags and searches? Was there a shooting scare, were there fears of weapons coming in?



WoonMom said:

it was probably some kid that got turned down for prom night...it was probably just a hoax as they say. chill out.



alice said:

onwatch: there was a threat of a gun being brought to school on friday in addition to the bomb threat on monday.



CHS said:

Onwatch, there was a second threat later that week saying someone was going t bring a bomb and a gun into schol on friday. thats why they did all the searches.



CHS said:

Onwatch, there was a second threat later that week saying someone was going t bring a bomb and a gun into schol on friday. thats why they did all the searches. What specifics were u looking for...?




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