Bomb threats received at several Utah schools deemed not credible

SALT LAKE CITY — Multiple schools around various states, including Utah have received bomb threats via email according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.

The DPS released a statement Friday morning saying they are aware of multiple “bomb threat” emails targeting schools. The statement continues, “all received threats have been determined to be hoaxes.”

The DPS is working with other law enforcement agencies to track down where the threats are coming from.

Weber School District’s Community Relations and Safety Specialist, Lane Findlay joined Utah’s Morning News to give an update on the situation. 

According to Findlay, reports of similar threats in other states popped up yesterday. 

“I just received an email from a colleague… There’s this hoax that’s circulating in the states north of us, you know, just be aware. And so, when we started receiving that same thing this morning, we were prepared for it already,” said Findlay. 

Findlay said they received a handful of threats this morning but he believes the hoax is spreading statewide. 

He said the priority was messaging parents.

“We were fortunate enough to have a little bit of a heads up that the same hoax had been circulating up in Idaho and Wyoming yesterday. So we were fortunate to have a little bit of information going into this.”

As a precaution, police presence was stepped up at some schools. However her said, they were confident that it was not credible.

“And so our big thing was just trying to get messaging out to the affected school communities, making sure parents were aware of what’s going on, making sure administrators knew what was happening. So we didn’t want to hit the panic button. Because this obviously was meant to cause a disruption,” said Findlay.

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