At approximately noon today, staff members discovered a written bomb threat scrawled on a bathroom wall at the Elwood Middle School. The building was immediately evacuated and searched and a ConnectEd message was sent out to parents. Later that afternoon, Suffolk County Police also visited the Middle School and examined the message.

There was no credible evidence for the threat. As a precaution, additional searches will be conducted in the overnight and tomorrow morning.

While these events have become all-too-commonplace in our society, it is of the utmost importance that we take these threats seriously, as the health and safety of our students and staff is our first priority.

In sum, the district acted literally within minutes to empty the middle school and conduct a sweep to ensure the safety of students and staff, as is our established practice. Finding that this was not a credible threat and merely a distracting prank, we re-established our presence in the building. We regret not contacting police to alert them to this issue, and extend our apologies to any of our community members who became needlessly concerned as a result.