Threat Prompts Increased Police at 5 Harford County Schools

Increased police presence is expected at five Harford County schools on Wednesday, after a threat at C. Milton Wright High School, officials said.

While police do not believe it is a credible threat, law enforcement and school officials said they aren't taking any chances.

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This is the second threat to impact C. Milton Wright within the past week. On Thursday, Oct. 18, someone wrote a bomb threat on a C. Milton Wright bathroom mirror. When the message was found, the building was evacuated and police searched the school with a bomb detecting dog. The dog and deputies found nothing dangerous inside the school.

"The same day that we had a bomb threat at the school, we had a writing that said something would happen on 10/24, which is tomorrow," Capt. Keith Warner, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, said Tuesday.

The second threatening message mentioned four additional local schools— private school John Carroll, and public schools Patterson Mill, Aberdeen and Edgewood high schools.

Teri Kranefeld, manager of communications with Harford County Public Schools, explained that this message threatened C. Milton, but served as more of an alert message to the other schools, as opposed to a direct threat.

"There is only one school that was cited in the threat and that is C. Milton Wright," Kranefeld said.

Warner said the message did not indicate that anything would happen at the other schools, but because they were mentioned, they are also on high alert this week.

All five schools are expected to have an increased police presence Wednesday.

"We are providing security at all the schools, of course, we will have more security at C. Milton Wright," Warner said.

Kranefeld said that public schools have a plan in place for Wednesday, but would not divulge details for safety reasons.

"We’re putting all precautions in place," Kranefeld said.

Madelyn Ball, principal at John Carroll, sent out an email message to parents alerting them to police presence and the threat.

"As a parent, you have a right to know about this situation so that you can make a decision about whether or not to send your child to school on Wednesday, October 24," Ball wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by Patch.

If parents decide to keep their children home from the private school Wednesday, it will be considered an excused absence as long as parents call that morning and send a note the next day, the email states.

"We don’t think it’s a credible threat," Warner said, adding that, nevertheless, no threat is left unaddressed. "We’re going to do everything we can to make sure nothing does happen," Warner said.