A number of Maine schools received threatening messages Wednesday morning.
Reports have been trickling in from Houlton to Greater Bangor to the Waterville area in what appears to be the latest widespread “swatting” hoax to target the state’s schools. In a “swatting” hoax, someone typically sends a threatening message or reports a fake emergency to police in order to spur a large law enforcement presence in a particular area. That is sometimes done in retaliation or to create general panic.
Regional School Unit 34, which oversees Old Town’s schools, sent out an alert about 8:19 a.m. informing parents about the lockdown.
Roughly 20 state, county and local police cars lined the driveway to the Old Town Elementary School on Stillwater Avenue around 9 a.m., a Bangor Daily News reporter saw. Parents flocked to the parking lots of the nearby Bangor Savings Bank and Hannaford.
Parents were advised to not approach the school while police assessed the situation.
The lockdown sent nearby University of Maine in Orono, which has property abutting Old Town Elementary School, but normal operations had resumed about 9 a.m. The Maine State Police called the threat not credible.
At 9:40 a.m., a Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy said the lockdown was lifted and parents could enter the school and pick up their children. RSU 34 said that police will be stationed at the school for afternoon pickup.
A similar threat sent RSU 29’s schools in Houlton into a brief lockdown and prompted an elevated police presence. An unknown caller threatened to do harm with a gun, according to Houlton Police Chief Timothy DeLuca.
In Winslow, a secretary received a threatening phone call about 8:15 a.m., and in response, the district there put the elementary, middle and high schools into lock-out mode while police assessed the situation, according to Peter Thiboutot, Winslow’s superintendent of schools.
A spokesperson for the Bangor School Department told the Bangor Daily News that the Queen City’s schools weren’t among those targeted, but police have increased their presence around them as a precaution.
Across the Penobscot River in Brewer, police assisted “another law enforcement agency” in finding a person of interest who allegedly had made threats to kill school staff and others. While police were gathered near a home to contact that person, a woman allegedly interfered with officers, sounding an air horn, swearing at officers and refusing orders to leave.
The woman reportedly told Brewer police that she “didn’t want ICE” in her neighborhood.
Police eventually determined that the person of interest in Brewer was not responsible for the school threats.
No threats were reported in Portland, according to a police spokesperson there.
Other schools have reportedly received similar threats, which the BDN has not yet been able to confirm.
BDN writers Kasey Turman and Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli contributed to this report.