Bomb threats determined to be a hoax

On the morning of December 13, bomb threats were sent out to multiple school districts in the state, which were later found to be unsubstantiated.
Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said that Sergeant Craig Shidler immediately responded to the threat in conjunction with the school resource officers at each school. Schools in Greybull and Basin were also notified.
 “There was immediate response from law enforcement agencies as soon as appropriate, and the sheriff’s department did respond and assisted in assessing the threat and then determining what action needed to be taken along with the school authorities.”
School resource officers Brad McConnell and Corbin Poole of the Sheriff’s Department were involved in the response, as well as Blackburn and multiple other officers. A threat assessment was done in conjunction with the FBI and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, which determined the threat was “fairly low priority.”
Every threat is taken seriously, Blackburn said, and the safety of students and citizens is most important. Schools around Big Horn County were all in some form of shelter in place while school staff, law enforcement and other qualified people searched every area of the buildings.
“These things are called phishing incidents. We’re not discounting any of them, but a lot of times people do these to try to get attention or to try to disrupt the normal flow of things,” he said. ”We don’t take any of them lightly. We assess all of them. And we’ll go through an assessment procedure on everything that we receive on any given threat. And in this particular instance, we were able to keep school in session.”
Blackburn said the law enforcement officers that responded did a fabulous job of responding and working with the schools and that the schools did a great job of responding, as well. County emergency management and state homeland security, as well as other emergency services, were notified of the threat and were on standby to assist with the threat.
“We remained on a state of readiness throughout the day. And there was never an indication that gave us probable cause to elevate the threat in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Matt Davidson, Big Horn County School District #1 superintendent, said that the school collaborated with law enforcement to respond to the threat.
“Safety of students and staff is an ongoing priority. We do take all threats seriously,” Davidson wrote in a press release. “Hoax threats are very disturbing and illegal. Please discuss the seriousness of making such threats with your children so they understand how impactful such threats can be.”
School District #2 superintendent Doug Hazen said that after receiving a bomb threat from an unknown email the school worked with law enforcement to lockdown schools and sweep the schools with the student resource officer and school staff to sweep the building. The threat was found to not be credible and school continued in session, Hazen said.