ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Students at William Allen High School headed home for the day after a bomb threat prompted an early dismissal Monday.
It’s something the Allentown School District has been dealing with a lot during the first month of school. The district has dealt with several bomb threats recently, including two at Trexler Middle School.
Ryan Whartenby, the school district’s chief operations officer, says a call came in that there was a bomb threat at the high school. Allentown Police confirm that two notes were found inside the school building indicating a bomb was placed and set for detonation. Students and staff were then evacuated.
Investigators say the building was thoroughly checked with help from bomb sniffing K9’s from the Lehigh County Sheriff’s Department, Pennsylvania State Police, and Lehigh Valley Airport Police. The search took several hours.Â
Whartenby says this is now the fourth bomb threat within the district this school year, and the second at William Allen High School.
Rich Rolen | for WFMZ-TV
Students were evacuated to J. Birney Crum Stadium. We have seen multiple police officers there as students are being dismissed for the day.
“We have to stop this behavior. It’s extremely disruptive,” Whartenby said.
“What it also does, it pulls all our resources. A lot of staff is down here assisting the school. The police are here, the fire department is here. We have an FBI agent here, so this has been ramped up considerably with both law enforcement and the need for administration to be down here to support the school.”
No bombs or other explosive materials were located during the search, police say.