Bomb Threats Continue At Newtown Middle School

By Andrew Gorosko

Amid continuing police investigations into a recent rash of bomb threats at local schools, Newtown Middle School experienced yet another bomb threat midday on Tuesday, resulting in an evacuation of the school and search of the building before police declared the threat baseless and students and staffers were allowed to return inside the sprawling building at 11 Queen Street.

According to police incident logs, at 12:07 pm Tuesday police received a telephone call from Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock informing them of the bomb threat.

 Police Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde said that students and school staffers evacuated the building and remained outside for about an hour as police and school personnel searched the school for any possible bomb, but found none and declared it safe for the building’s occupants to return inside.

As in past bomb threats, handwriting indicating a bomb’s presence was found on the wall of a boys’ restroom inside the school. The school houses seventh-grade and eighth-grade students.

Police are reviewing evidence collected by video surveillance cameras positioned in public areas inside the school in seeking to learn who may have written that threat on the restroom wall, Sgt Bahamonde said. Such video evidence may help narrow down who is responsible for the bomb threat, the sergeant said.

“We’re actively pursuing all leads,” Police Chief Michael Kehoe said of the police investigations into the multiple bomb threats. Police are cooperating with school administrators in the matter, he said.

Each individual bomb threat is being investigated, he said. “We take every one of these very seriously…We’ll use all available resources.”

The police chief said it is difficult to discuss the recent series of bomb threats in general because each case is individual.

Police have submitted an arrest warrant application to Danbury Superior Court in seeking to charge the person responsible for making a baseless May 8 bomb threat at Newtown High School. Police are seeking charges of breach of peace and falsely reporting an incident in the case in which a handwritten threat was found on the wall of a boys’ restroom.

The suspect is a male “youthful offender,” meaning that he is either 16 or 17 years old. The identity of youthful offenders who are charged with crimes is shielded from public disclosure by state law. Similarly, the eventual court disposition of such cases remains concealed under state law.

Police are also investigating a recent rash of bomb threats at Newtown Middle School.

Following bomb threats, building searches sometimes require the buildings to be evacuated, posing disruptions to school classes.

Recent baseless bomb scares occurred at the middle school on May 13, May 6, May 2, and April 29. 

In February, police arrested a middle school student on charges of threatening and breach of peace for allegedly making a bomb threat at that school last October.

So far in 2008, there have been about ten bomb scares in local schools.

Police Officer Domenic Costello, who is the police department’s school resource officer for Newtown High School and for Newtown Middle School, is investigating the recent rash of bomb threats.