MONROE - Monroe Middle School was swept by police searching for a bomb or hazardous materials after a custodial staff member found a disturbing message written on a bathroom stall Wednesday morning.
Monroe police officers checked students' backpacks and swept the building, but no hazardous or suspicious items were found, according to a Monroe School District news release. Chief of Police Fred Kelley said the school called dispatch at about 7:05 a.m. and police searched the school for about two hours, then moved on to check the rest of Monroe schools. Kelley said classes were minimally disrupted and that classes continued while police searched the building. Kelley refrained from detailing the specifics of the message on the stall as it is deemed evidentiary at this time.
"The only thing I'm prepared to tell you is that the message would infer to some sort of bomb," Kelley said.
Kelley said the last time a threat like this was made at a Monroe school was in April 2009. So far there is little indication about when the message was written, but Kelley said it is better to err on the side of caution and treat it as though the message was written Wednesday. He said the message on the wall did not single out any particular individual, though he said the investigators are following leads.
"We'll see if the leads take us anywhere and see if we can narrow down and open some doors and finally get around to who wrote this," Kelley said.
The incident remains under investigation by police, and all Monroe schools were checked for hazardous materials and none were found. The news release states that precautionary measures will be in place across the Monroe School District in the coming weeks.
"It seems like the people that write these things seem to think it's funny, but we're not seeing it that way," Kelley said. "Obviously safety comes first and we treated it like a hazard."
Monroe police officers checked students' backpacks and swept the building, but no hazardous or suspicious items were found, according to a Monroe School District news release. Chief of Police Fred Kelley said the school called dispatch at about 7:05 a.m. and police searched the school for about two hours, then moved on to check the rest of Monroe schools. Kelley said classes were minimally disrupted and that classes continued while police searched the building. Kelley refrained from detailing the specifics of the message on the stall as it is deemed evidentiary at this time.
"The only thing I'm prepared to tell you is that the message would infer to some sort of bomb," Kelley said.
Kelley said the last time a threat like this was made at a Monroe school was in April 2009. So far there is little indication about when the message was written, but Kelley said it is better to err on the side of caution and treat it as though the message was written Wednesday. He said the message on the wall did not single out any particular individual, though he said the investigators are following leads.
"We'll see if the leads take us anywhere and see if we can narrow down and open some doors and finally get around to who wrote this," Kelley said.
The incident remains under investigation by police, and all Monroe schools were checked for hazardous materials and none were found. The news release states that precautionary measures will be in place across the Monroe School District in the coming weeks.
"It seems like the people that write these things seem to think it's funny, but we're not seeing it that way," Kelley said. "Obviously safety comes first and we treated it like a hazard."