Three school districts in north central Iowa went into lock-down mode this afternoon after school officials reviewed threatening messages.

It started on Tuesday night when the Algona Community School District received a threat to students and the district. The call came in around 10 o’clock. As a result, police and school officials cancelled school for Wednesday until further investigation could be made.

Then, earlier this afternoon, the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Community Schools received a text message threat against their school. That message was communicated to nearby districts such as the Eagle Grove and Belmond-Klemme Community School Districts. As a result, all three districts have gone into a Level 1 lockdown until dismissal today.

Police are investigating the source of these threatening texts. Meanwhile, doors to all of the schools remain locked and local police and the county sheriff’s offices are on extra patrol nearby. There are other safety precautions that are taking place within the schools to ensure the safety of the students, faculty and staff.

Classes were cancelled in Johnston on Tuesday after parents and students received threatening text messages from the 818 area code. Today Sioux City officials are investigating a threatening text message sent to a student at Sioux City North High School. Superintendent Paul Gausman says the threat is similar to messages sent to families in the Johnston.

“In that district, they had multiple text messages to different parents and, I believe, students’ cell phones in their community,” Gausman says. “Last night, I was informed that we had one parent in this district who had a student who received a similar text message.”

Sioux City’s superintendent says officials determined there was no credible threat connected to that text message, but police did a complete sweep of Sioux City North High School before students and staff arrived today to ensure the building was safe.

School officials in Johnston delayed the start of today’s classes for a similar security assessment of buildings in the central Iowa district.

(Reporting by AJ Taylor, KIOW, Forest City & Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)