Threats Close Local Schools Early Monday

Schools across Oregon received threats Monday, including Brookings-Harbor School District, forcing schools to dismiss early in an abundance of caution. At 1:25pm,  Monday afternoon, December 11th, the Brookings-Harbor School District stated that schools will be dismissing early – effective immediately after the school district ‘received a threatening message’.  

Parents were asked to come to the school as soon as possible to pick up their child at their usual pick-up location and that buses would be running routes about one and a half hours earlier than usual.

Students and staff were moved away from buildings earlier than usual Monday out of an abundance of caution, and law enforcement thoroughly searched the premises before it was determined that there was no indication of an immediate concern for student safety.

Many other school districts across the state received similar messages, prompting a response by the FBI in a released response late Monday, “The FBI is aware of several threatening e-mail messages that were recently sent to various Oregon schools, airports and houses of worship. While the FBI has no information to indicate these threats are credible at this time, public safety agencies can never simply discount such threats as a nuisance… Hoax threats put innocent people at risk and can easily distract and deplete limited public safety resources. We recognize these threats have already been extremely disruptive to classrooms and elsewhere. The FBI will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to determine if the threats are connected in any way and we will act upon threat information as it comes to our attention. We urge the public to remain vigilant and report all suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately.”  

Schools are scheduled to resume normal operations today, Tuesday, Dec. 12th, with classes at Kalmiopsis Elementary, Azalea Middle School, and Brookings-Harbor High School.