Update: Police Investigation at Maplewood In South Huntington SD

At approximately midday on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, a teacher saw writing on a radiator located outside a classroom in South Huntington’s Maplewood school that read “there is a bomb in here.”  The writing was enclosed in a circle, 2 inches by 2 inches, and appeared to be in a child’s lettering. The teacher immediately moved the children from the classroom adjacent to the radiator in question to a computer lab in another area of the building.

Superintendent Bennardo contacted the police, who came immediately to Maplewood.  According to school officials, the supervising officer asked for an evacuation of the building.  The children and staff gathered their belongings before moving quickly to the outside field away from the building.  After the rain and sleet began to fall the plan changed.

At that point, the police were uncertain over the length of time students and staff would be out of the building. Administration made the decision to call the buses to bring the children and staff to the Walt Whitman auditorium.

The evacuation proceeded smoothly with each student accounted for at the high school. Maplewood teachers and staff joined the high school team and remained with their students throughout the afternoon. The transportation office then worked to arrange to have all children, including the walkers, transported home at or around the normal dismissal time.

At about 3 p.m. the police told school officials that the room and radiator had been totally cleared, and they were comfortable that there was no danger.

School officials stated, “While we are comfortable with the police determinations and have no reason to believe that opening school will be a problem, we have conducted our own inspection of the area. In addition, we are erring on the side of caution and having an expert security firm join us to inspect the building during the overnight hours.”

As of 5:05 a.m. the security team and their canines have searched and cleared the Maplewood building.  School officials stated, “All is well and a regular school day is planned.”