LYNN — Police assigned three officers to Breed Middle School Monday and school administrators reached out to parents after receiving a “non specific” threat to shoot up a school referred to in an Instagram screen image as “BMS.”
School Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said no incidents occurred at the O’Callaghan Way school Monday and said the threat was made via social media in several school districts across the country, including ones in Arizona and California.
The threat was later discovered to be a hoax after the posting was tracked to an Internet Provider address in San Leandro, Calif. An eighth-grader reportedly admitted posting it as a joke, after an investigation by the Benson Police Department in San Pedro Valley in California.
Tutwiler said Lynn police assigned officers during the school day to Breed because the image stated the shooting would occur at 12:21 p.m., when students walk from one class to another.
He said a Breed student brought the image to the attention of Breed Principal Julie Louf, who contacted Tutwiler at 7:30 a.m. Monday. The screen image stated: “Attention everyone who goes to BMS will be shooting up the school on Monday afternoon @1221.”
“It was a nonspecific threat that could have involved thousands of schools. However, we immediately involved the police,” Tutwiler said.
School officials used the district’s mass call system to notify parents about the threat, emphasizing that it was nonspecific. Tutwiler said by 9 a.m. Lynn officials became aware of accounts of other school districts across the country receiving the threat.
Police answered calls from concerned parents throughout Monday and Tutwiler said parents received a follow-up call Monday afternoon informing them the school day proceeded without incident.
“We take each and every one of these threats seriously. Today is a reflection of a system that works,” Tutwiler said.
Police Lt. Michael Kmiec said despite the specific time reference, police received no information indicating the threat was aimed at Breed.
The California student who apparently posted the notice attended Bancroft Middle School, hence the “BMS” notation, according to the Benson Police Dept. Facebook page, which noted one of the children living at the IP address site admitted creating the fake account and posting the message to social media. A secondary message also appears on the posting, announcing it was a joke.
The Sunday night post kicked off a multi-agency investigation that included the FBI and several police departments in California.
