DECATUR, Mich. — Decatur Public Schools was forced to evacuate staff and students from its building Tuesday after a call from overseas.
Superintendent Patrick Creagan tells FOX 17 someone called in the threat to the police department around noon.
This resulted in the evacuation of 750 students, along with staff members. They were taken to the VFW down the street.
Michigan State Police (MSP) responded with a K-9 unit and did a thorough sweep of the school, finding nothing.
Superintendent Creagan says, according to police, it’s believed the call came from overseas with the sole intent to scare people.
“There’s absolutely no reason for any of this to happen. We are understanding that the bomb threat is coming from somewhere overseas, someone who doesn’t know about Decatur. Even if they did, why would you want to do something like this? But I’m very proud of the students, the staff, for reacting so quickly. We were evacuated within minutes,” he explained.
The district conducts three threat assessments each year and says Tuesday’s evacuation took fewer than five minutes.
This letter was sent to parents Tuesday:
Dec 12 2023 by WXMI on Scribd
MSP released the following statement Wednesday, saying all threats of this nature are taken seriously:
“Michigan State Police (MSP) takes seriously all calls of threats or violence to schools or other public institutions and responds accordingly until the threat is eliminated or proven to be a hoax. These type of calls require an all hands on deck response from law enforcement personnel, which inherently exposes everyone, including them, the students, staff, and the public to a dangerous situation. Therefore, those who decide to play this game will undoubtedly be held accountable by the fullest extent of state law.”
