For the second day in a row a Franklin County high school closed early and sent students home in response to a threat of a school shooting.
Students were released just after noon on Wednesday from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, after the school received a note threatening a shooting at the school later in the afternoon, according to the St. Albans Police Department.
Police said in a news release that there was “no active danger” found at the school. The St. Albans high school received the threatening note just one week after a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fl., that left 17 people dead.
On Tuesday Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax was placed on lockdown, and students were sent home around noon, after school administrators were informed of a threatening message sent to a student via Facebook. The student believed to have sent the message was “secured” by police.
And on Monday a Colchester High School student was arrested after allegedly telling another student that he was going to “shoot up the school,” according to the Colchester Police Department.
The threats and resulting school closures follow the arrest last week of an 18-year-old former Fair Haven High School student for allegedly plotting an attack on the high school.
Jack Sawyer is being held without bail facing charges of attempted aggravated murder, attempted first-degree murder and attempted aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in connection with the threats.
Officers from the St. Albans Police Department as well as the Vermont State Police and nearby sheriffs responded to Wednesday’s reported threat to Bellow Free Academy in St. Albans. Officers stood by while students were evacuated, according to police, who said law enforcement would remain at the school while the matter is investigated.
BFA St. Albans Principal Chris Mosca would not go into details about the message the school received, saying that it was under investigation, but he said the school responded in accordance with safety protocols.
“Based on what we knew, the notion of evacuating students made the most sense,” he said.
The school, with a student body of 825, was evacuated within 38 minutes from the time the threat was received, he said.
He expects the school to be open as usual Thursday.
Mosca was a school principal in 1999, when two heavily armed students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Co., killing 13 people. The Columbine mass killings set off a wave of threats to schools across the country.
“In many ways this is history repeating itself,” he said. “It’s sad, it’s angering and it’s frustrating.”
Police say the threat remains under investigation. They asked people who have information about the matter to contact the department.
Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Albans high school evacuated after shooting threat.