COLORADO, USA — Dozens of schools and synagogues across Colorado received bomb threats Tuesday, which prompted some of them to evacuate.
The FBI Denver office said it was aware of "numerous hoax bomb threats" sent to various government buildings, schools and other facilities in Colorado but said they have no information that any of them were credible.
The Colorado Office of Emergency Management said more than 40 schools, districts and synagogues across the state reported that they received a bomb threat via email. The office said, "No credible threats were discovered today in Colorado."
Denver Public Schools said they were among the districts that received "vague threats."
"Denver Public Schools along with other school districts around the state received an email threat this morning that was very generic. It didn't list a single school, didn't list a person, didn't list anything other than it was a generic threat," said Scott Pribble, the district's Director of External Communications.
Pribble said DPS got law enforcement involved, and they quickly determined the threat was not real. Students did not need to be evacuated.
Denver police said they "were made aware of threats made to Denver synagogues and schools."
"These threats were investigated and determined to be a hoax," the department said in a statement. "The source of the threats is under investigation at this time."
The Kiowa County Sheriff's Office said it was first notified of an emailed threat toward Eads Schools at 9:20 a.m. Emergency personnel arrived and evacuated the schools. The schools were cleared by law enforcement, and the threat was deemed to be fictitious.
The Estes Park Police Department and the Estes Park School District put out a joint statement saying that a threat was received by email that indicated the presence of explosive devices within the school campus.
Estes Park Interim Police Chief Ian Stewart said the school district dismissed school early while police cleared the building. As some parents waited in the cold for their kids to be released, Stewart said the district brought a bus out to help them stay warm.
Jeffco Public Schools said the district did not receive any swatting calls, but two schools went into secure status as a precaution after two nearby synagogues received threats. The district said one of the schools served as a reunification center for preschool families from the evacuated synagogue.
Temple Emanuel, a synagogue in Denver, said their Early Learning Center and entire building were evacuated after "an explosives threat" that was received over email. The threat, according to Temple Emanuel, was received by synagogues all over the Denver and Boulder areas.
Har HaShem, in Boulder, said in a Facebook post that they also received a threat Tuesday morning. They called the police and the campus was cleared with the assistance of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit.
This round of school and synagogue threats may have been phony, but Pribble said they can cause real fear and anxiety for students.
“At the beginning of the last school year, one of our flagship high schools had a swatting threat. They didn’t even know that something had come in until the police department showed up with weapons out because the call came directly to the police department so they responded the way that you do for that kind of threat," Pribble said. “So yeah, it definitely can cause some emotions, can cause some real problems for our students. In that situation, they were in a lockdown situation for a long time because we had to go through and search the entire building – floor by floor, room by room until we knew for sure that it wasn’t real.”
Pribble said these kinds of threats come in on a regular basis, and it's frustrating.
"Most of the time, the people who are making these threats are not anywhere near the area. So it's frustrating. I personally don't understand what the purpose is behind it. There's no gain for them other than maybe they know they're causing some stress for some people," he said.
But, Pribble said, both the district and law enforcement take every threat seriously. They have to.
"We have no choice," Pribble said. "We have to take every threat that we receive seriously until it's determined that it's not legitimate."
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