Activities will go on as normal this evening after classes in the Algona Community School District were canceled this morning by a bomb threat.
Administrators learned of the threat around 7 a.m. and immediately contacted local law enforcement. Superintendent Joe Carter addressed the situation around 9 a.m. “We worked with Chief Miller and the Algona Police Department and Sheriff Fisher, and we’ve been able to go through our our regular safety protocols and we can say our buildings are safe,” he says.
The Algona Police Department says a search was conducted by an officer and dog trained to detect explosive devices. The threat is believed to be automated and directed towards multiple school districts that begin with the letter “A”.
Algona Police Chief Bo Miller says that anytime a threat is made, law enforcement takes it seriously.
“You know, we just been following protocols working directly with these guys using the resources we have, you know using canine to help secure buildings. Chief Miller says they are working with the Iowa DCI and the FBI to investigate the source of the threat. Superintendent Carter says they tried to alert parents to the situation as quickly as they could through social media and the district’s smartphone app.
The Linn County Sheriff’s office and the Alburnett Schools also received a computer-generated voicemail saying bombs were placed within schools. Major Chad Colston with the Linn County Sheriff’s department says comparing the messages to other similar ones leads him to believe the threat is a hoax.
“We find out that a lot of these things are probably set up by a computer, and they’re randomly going to select areas of the United States or maybe even overseas,” Colston says. Colston says these schools may have been selected randomly from a list. “We probably have something that’s dialing up just through the phone book and are trying to create panic and fear,” he says.
The Linn County Sheriff’s office is cooperating with the state fire marshal and FBI to investigate. School activities are expected to continue this evening and over the weekend.
(By Brian Wilson, KLGA, Algona/Lucia Cheng, Iowa Public Radio)