MACHIAS, Maine — Machias Memorial High School was closed on Wednesday due to a bomb threat.
Scott Porter, superintendent of Machias Bay Area Schools, said Wednesday afternoon the threat was “communicated to a staff member” in the morning, while buses were transporting some of the school’s 125 students.
He declined to say which staff member received the threat or exactly what time and how it was communicated while the investigation is underway.
He did say that buses begin driving students to school between 6 and 6:30 a.m., with classes scheduled to begin at 7:45 a.m.
Wednesday morning the buses were turned around to take students back home. Officials also suspended classes at Rose Gaffney Elementary School, which is located adjacent to the high school, he said.
If parents weren’t home, the youngsters were taken to the gym at the University of Maine at Machias until they could be picked up, Porter said.
“We couldn’t go back on campus at that point,” he said.
School officials called local police, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department and state police, he said.
“We certainly put the safety of students first,” Porter said, adding that all threats must be taken seriously.
The state police brought a K-9 bomb-sniffing dog to the scene to help determine the high school building was safe, he said. Classes are slated to resume Thursday.
Porter said police are still investigating the incident. Investigators do not yet know whether the threat made in Machias is connected to threats made Tuesday against Gardiner Area High School and the Rockland McDonald’s.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police, said Wednesday that he had no information on the Machias bomb threat, but that a phoned-in bomb threat that closed the Gardiner high school on Tuesday morning was connected to dozens of other anonymous threats made against schools along the eastern seaboard that day.
The Reuters news agency reported Tuesday that all were apparent hoaxes.