On Monday April 18th at approximately 10:30am, the sheriff’s office was notified of a possible bomb threat at Columbia High School. Students were evacuated to a safe location and officials from CCSO and the school district implemented safety protocols.
CCSO coordinated a multi-law enforcement agency search of the campus with no suspicious devices located. After the school was searched, the decision was made to allow students to return to class and resume normal operations on campus.
A similar situation occurred on March 15th of this year when another threat of a suspicious package was reported. In both of these situations, the call was placed using a phone number application which is untraceable. It has been confirmed that multiple schools across North Florida have received very similar threats.
In a statement, Sheriff Hunter said, “We appreciate the continued partnership we have with our school district and other law enforcement agencies as we keep our children safe. Although we believe these incidents to be hoaxes, we will never take the safety of our children for granted.”
Superintendent Lex Carswell said, “School safety is our number one priority and today’s incident reminded me of that. The students and staff did a great job of following our training and our partnership with CCSO further created a safe school that our students can return to. A learning environment that is safe is truly a partnership between law enforcement, the community, and the school district. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.”
Investigation into these reports is ongoing.
