[B]ellows Free Academy Fairfax went into “lockdown” and sent students home early Tuesday after learning of a threatening message that was sent to a student via Facebook.
Law enforcement officers have “secured” the person suspected of sending of the message and are continuing to investigate the threat, according to a recorded message from BFA Principal John Tague that was sent to parents in the morning.
The Facebook message was interpreted as threatening both the individual student and the school, Tague said in the recording.
School officials learned of the threat around 9:30 a.m. and contacted Vermont State Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, who interviewed the student who received the threat and obtained “credible information” about the identity of sender, he said.
“As the investigation continues and questions remains, we feel it is necessary to send students home. We are currently in a lockdown situation. Students were dismissed around noon,” Tague said.
School staff and local police declined to provide further information about the situation when reached by telephone.
A media release from the Franklin West Supervisory Union said school would resume on Wednesday.
The lockdown came days after police arrested a teenager who allegedly plotted to carry out a mass shooting at Fair Haven Union High School.
Jack Sawyer, 18, of Poultney, faces life in prison over charges of attempted aggravated murder, attempted first-degree murder and attempted aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Police learned of the threat in Fair Haven just hours after the shooting that killed 17 people at a high school in Florida.
Rob Evans, the safety liaison officer for Vermont’s Agency of Education, said his department doesn’t keep data on the number of lockdowns schools see each year.
But he said that amid the current climate of fear caused by high-profile acts of violence around the country, Vermonters are more attuned to possible threats.
“I think we see after any tragedy or horrific event that for a period of time there is this heightened awareness,” he said.
“People for all the right reasons are now really really paying attention to all the things that we are seeing on social media.”
