Regional School Unit 21 was placed on a district-wide hold-in-place for one hour on Thursday, Dec. 14, after a district administrator was sent a threatening email, according to RSU 21 Communication Specialist David Singer.
According to Singer, the email RSU 21 received said explosives had been placed in all Maine schools.
Regional School Unit 21, including Kennebunk High School, was placed on a district-wide hold-in-place for one hour on Thursday, Dec. 14, after a district administrator was sent a threatening email. Dan King file photo
In total, about 60 schools in Maine received the email, according to Shannon Moss, public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety. More were sent nationwide, though Moss did not say how many. She said the FBI is investigating.
A Thursday afternoon press release from Moss said that the emails sent nationwide “were deemed to be hoaxes.”
Last week, school districts in other states including Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, reported receiving emails talking about a bomb threat that law enforcement do not believe is credible – prompting evacuations at some schools.
At 11:30 a.m. Dec. 14, RSU 21 Superintendent Dr. Terri Cooper sent a message to parents that read: “All RSU 21 schools are now in a hold-in-place due to an apparent threat made to the district and other schools. We are going into a hold-in-place at the recommendation of police so that emergency responders can conduct a search of schools.”
About an hour later, Cooper sent another message saying that the hold-in-place had been lifted. “Though police did not believe the threat to be credible, we acted out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of everyone in our schools,” she said.
Kurt Moses, deputy chief of the Kennebunkport Police Department, was at an RSU 21 school responding to the situation on Thursday, but could not say how the law enforcement deemed the threat a hoax.
The email threat was sent on the anniversary of Sandy Hook, the 2012 mass shooting in Newton, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead, though according to Moss, the email threat sent to Maine schools did not mention Sandy Hook.
In a Dec. 14 post on the social media site Reddit, a person who identified themselves as a middle school teacher in southern Maine, made the connection: “What is wrong with people? 70 schools in Maine and more across the country got bomb threats today on the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook School massacre. It’s truly sickening. We were in a “Hold in Place” for two hours …“
The post did not specify the person’s location.
According to Moses, a hold-in-place is a slightly softer directive than a lockdown.
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