The Springfield City School District evacuated two elementary schools and a middle school Friday morning “based on information received from the Springfield Police Division,” according to school officials, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The school shutdowns come a day after Springfield’s City Hall had to be evacuated because of a bomb threat and three days after Donald Trump’s false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating the city’s dogs and cats. City officials, as well as Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, have debunked the viral claim, but Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, only doubled down on attacking the immigrant community there.
It is not yet clear if Friday’s evacuations are from a new threat or related to Thursday’s bomb threats, ABC News reported.
Students from Perrin Woods Elementary School and Snowhill Elementary School were evacuated from their buildings and moved to an “alternate district location” according to an SCSD news release as the district currently dismisses students to their parents.
Roosevelt Middle School did not open Friday based on the information provided by Springfield police. Some parents arriving to drop their children off at school were turned away, the Springfield News-Sun reported.
Bomb-detecting dogs helped police clear out multiple facilities listed in the threatening email on Thursday, including the two elementary schools, City Hall, and a few driver’s license bureaus, Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliott told ABC News. Elliot added that the county court facilities have also been cleared “out of an abundance of caution” until FBI and local police uncover the source of the threat.
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