Connecticut day school has ‘soft lockdown’ after threatening call

Julie Wiener

(JTA) — A Jewish day school in West Hartford, Connecticut underwent a “soft lockdown” after receiving a threatening phone message.

The Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford responded Friday morning upon receiving an automated phone call similar to one received at approximately the same time at a public elementary school in Amherst, Massachusetts, the Hartford Courant reported.

The voice on the automated call said, “This is not a drill. There’s someone on campus with a weapon. To repeat this message hit the star button.” The person who answered the phone at the Conservative nursery through eighth-grade school pressed the star button, the message was repeated and then phone line went dead, police told the Courant.

The school immediately called the police who arrived within 90 seconds and found nothing amiss. Under the lockdown,no one was allowed to enter or leave the school and students remained in their classrooms.

Detectives in West Hartford are working to determine the source of the call and whether it was made intentionally.

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