ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Back-to-school got off to a rocky start in one Allentown school Monday morning. Students at Allen High say they never made it into the building before being turned away due to a bomb threat.<\/p>\n
Kiana Santiago was walking into senior year at William Allen High School.<\/p>\n
“I already had nerves, I was shaken up,” she said. “Because it’s my senior year and I’m going back to school, obviously I’m going to be nervous.”<\/p>\n
Monday was supposed to be Santiago’s last first day of school, of her high school career. That is, until she never even got to make it into the building.<\/p>\n
“I’m like really?” Santiago said. “On my first day?”<\/p>\n
Allentown police responded to William Allen High School at around 6:45 a.m. for the report of a bomb threat Monday morning. In a note sent out to parents, the school says it was made aware early Monday morning and evacuated the school “out of an abundance of caution.”<\/p>\n
Police and fire on site were “conducting a thorough investigation,” according to the school, “to ensure the safety of all students and staff.”<\/p>\n
“You come to school like, ‘oh, let me get this over with,’ and then this stuff happens,” fellow senior, Mia Mercedes, said. “It’s terrible.”<\/p>\n
By 8:45 a.m. students were dismissed. Buses arrived around 9:15 a.m. to take them home for the day.<\/p>\n
“It’s terrible, it’s cold,” Mercedes said. “Excited to come to school and then we see all these kids outside.”<\/p>\n
Students at Allen High say there were quite a few bomb scares last year as well.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, a lot of times,” Mercedes said.<\/p>\n
“It would be like, a few in one month,” senior Arianna Vasquez said.<\/p>\n
“But I came this morning and I just see all this, and I’m like, tired,” Santiago said. “I’m exhausted now.”<\/p>\n
And while some say they’re getting desensitized to the bomb threats, for many, it’s another added concern, on top of the usual first-day jitters.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely scary,” Santiago said. “Teachers being evacuated, and caution tape over there.”<\/p>\n
Police left the school just before noon after conducting a sweep with a police canine team. Authorities say no suspicious items were located through a search of the building and grounds. The investigation is active and ongoing.<\/p>\n
The Allentown Police Department is asking anyone with information to call Detectives at 610-437-7721 or the Police Desk at 610-437-7753 (ext. 1). Additionally, anonymous text tips can be sent via the Tip411 App available on the Allentown Police Facebook Page<\/a> or via the Allentown Police Department website at https:\/\/www.allentownpa.gov\/Police<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Back-to-school got off to a rocky start in one Allentown school Monday morning. Students at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12159,119,121,120,44072,28006,24800,39628,31,34708,10043,10044,61766,4032,48724,61771,1856,34706,2900,2897,13687,28,206,3628,294,114283,114284,10011,3315,61759,10208],"class_list":["post-271458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allen-high-school","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-back-to-school","tag-bomb","tag-bomb-threat","tag-bombing","tag-crime","tag-crime-prevention","tag-criminology","tag-deviance-sociology","tag-domestic-policy","tag-emergency-services","tag-first-day-of-school","tag-guerrilla-warfare-tactics","tag-law-enforcement","tag-law-enforcement-techniques","tag-legal-action","tag-misconduct","tag-national-security","tag-pennsylvania","tag-police","tag-police-investigation","tag-public-safety","tag-santiago","tag-school-evacuation","tag-school-safety","tag-students","tag-terrorism-tactics","tag-william-allen-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}