BIDDEFORD — School officials canceled today’s classes at Biddeford High School following a potential threat that was received online Wednesday morning.

Classes at the Center for Technology, which is located next to the high school, have also been canceled. The elementary and middle schools will remain open today with increased police presence.

Superintendent Jeremy Ray confirmed that school officials began working with the Biddeford Police Department after the threat was received around 11 a.m. Wednesday morning via a mobile application called After School. According to Ray, the message was anonymous, and depicted a gun emoji and a two-second clip of a gun from a television show.

The school was not evacuated Wednesday because the threat made no reference to an attack that day, nor did it outline any specific details about a potential attack, Ray said.

“We maintained normality because there was no specific threat about today,” Ray said Wednesday afternoon. “It made no reference to (an attack). It was nonspecific.”

Ray did not state from which show the video clip originated, and mentioned that the post disappeared quickly after it was brought before school officials by students.

Messages were sent to parents of elementary and high school students in the afternoon to alert them of the threat, stating that classes would be canceled Thursday out of “an abundance of caution.”

Seniors at the high school were scheduled to enjoy their senior breakfast today. Plans to reschedule the breakfast are being discussed.

“Our first concern was, ‘Let’s deal with tomorrow and our high school,’ and make sure students are safe, and making sure that we have a lined-up police presence,” Ray said.

There will be an increased police presence at the schools throughout the remainder of the school year, Ray said. School officials were evaluating the situation this morning in anticipation of upcoming school events such as the spring music concert.

The threat came the same day that an article called “Hack attacks” was posted to The Roar, the high school’s student online newspaper, that outlines how students may be vulnerable to online hacking without taking proper precautions.

The article also describes incidents of hacking at the school. Ray believes the threat was isolated, however, and there is no connection between the article and the threat.

“I don’t think (hacking) is a huge problem,” Ray said. “Any time there’s wireless, kids are pretty darn savvy. And there have been some issues, but certainly nothing confidential or any problem with that. Kids are pretty darn good with a computer.”

“I think (the threat) is pretty isolated,” he added.

Ray also spoke about the issue of hacking at the high school by students, saying that there have been a few issues with televisions and email accounts at the school, but nothing of a confidential or dangerous nature.

Despite having no apparent connection between the article and the threat, the incident raises questions about the safety of anonymous mobile apps. The After School app allows students to post anonymously about each other or themselves using text, photos and videos.

The app requires students to turn on their phone’s location settings and select a school before verifying their student status through Facebook. However, if one is not verified, a user can be verified through phone contacts to confirm student status.

“You can choose from anywhere in the area. That could have been done by somebody in Saco, or Old Orchard or Arundel,” Ray said. “Being anonymous, it appears to us that a lot of high school students are using that app.”

The app’s website states that it takes threats seriously and that it “employs proactive moderation, both technical and human, to detect threats.” When a threat may pose a risk to an individual or school, the app uses a notification system to alert school officials and law enforcement.

Students brought the post forward to school officials, and Ray is pleased to see they are comfortable doing so.

“I think it’s a pretty good indication of what our student body is on the sense of being safe at school and having a good, trusting relationship with our administrators to feel pretty comfortable to bring this up immediately,” Ray said.

“I’m proud of the students that brought it forward and saddened by the situation, but our job here is to make sure students at our high school and all other schools are safe, and I think our decision promotes that.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected]. Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf contributed to this report.