Hundreds of students were brought to the football field, initially, before school personnel made the decision to close the school for the day. Photo contributed
Fairfax County Police’s first responders reported to McLean High School Monday, Feb. 29 for a “reported bomb threat,” according to police tweets. “School is closing, kids to be bussed home.”
Officer Roger Henriquez reported that Fire and Rescue and police personnel responded immediately to the reported bomb threat a little after 8 a.m. “School administration made the decision to evacuate students to the football field,” he said.
After an initial sweep of the interior of the school, Henriquez said, “We felt out of an abundance of caution to give a thorough sweep.”
School administration decided to close the school and bus students home.
“We wanted to make sure the school is safe,” said officer Henriquez.
By 9:05 a.m., police tweeted again, “nothing suspicious found,” according to Fairfax County Police documents.
An investigation will continue.
“Making these kinds of threats erroneously,” he said, “it put students in a panic situation.”
Hundreds of students were brought to the football field, initially, before school personnel made the decision to close the school for the day.
“Safety is paramount,” said Henriquez. “We had 800 or so students sitting on the football field. At that point, it was safer and better to send students home.”
An investigation will continue, he said, and there are serious charges associated with making false threats, said Henriquez.
Initially, four to eight first responders have to respond, training dogs are brought to assist with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, and up to 15-20 officers helped with the overall situation, said Henriquez.