UPDATE: Police Clear Arlington High School After Bomb Threat

ARLINGTON, MA— Police and fire officials have cleared Arlington High School, where students were dismissed after the school received a bomb threat.

The Arlington Police said they received the threat at 8:55 Tuesday morning. The threat said that bombs in backpacks would explode in the school and that students would be shot after the explosions, Police Chief Fred Ryan told reporters.

Police, assisted by a K-9 unit from Boston, have cleared the school and declared the threats unfounded. Police had doubted the credibility of the threat this morning, but administrators decided to close the school anyway.

“Given recent threats to many regional schools, we chose to act with a great deal of caution in investigating the threat made to Arlington High School today,” Chief Ryan said in a press release. “We are actively working with our law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate this threat and would like to thank students, faculty, staff, and parents, who have been extremely patient and cooperative thus far.”

Police are being assisted by FBI officials to discover the source of the threat, reported NECN. Federal officials are also investigating threats made Tuesday at Groton Middle School and Florence Rhode School.

Police are unsure if situation is related to Friday’s bomb scare at Arlington Catholic. Several other area schools received threats on the same day.

School Superintendent Kathleen Bodie released a statement Tuesday night about the threat, and why the decision was made to close the school.

“Despite the fact that this was a widespread issue, we take these threats very seriously. Given the police presence and investigation, and out of an abundance of caution, we decided it would be in our best interest to release students, faculty and staff for the day. This also prevented students and staff from having to stand outside in the cold while police conducted a sweep of the building.”