LAUREL, Del. – Laurel Middle and High School was forced to evacuate Wednesday morning after a bomb threat, according to Laurel Superintendent of Schools Shawn Larrimore.
Students were removed from the building and brought to the Laurel Fire Department by bus where parents were able to pick their children up and take them home.
Carla Wilkins, mother of a Laurel senior, said she had to leave work briefly to pick up her son.
“It was a little scary,” said Wilkins, “I felt my blood pressure go up for a little bit.”
Parents across Delmarva can relate to what Wilkins described herself feeling. For more than a month, several school districts in Sussex and Kent counties in Delaware, as well as Worcester, Wicomico, and Dorchester in Maryland, have had to deal with multiple bomb threats. Most of these threats have been made via automated phone calls, also known as robocalls.
Larrimore pointed to the recent string of threats made to other schools as reason for why Laurel schools were so prepared. Larrimore says it took only 17 minutes to evacuate the building and get the students loaded onto the buses.
Larrimore says Wednesday’s threat was not automated and that a real person called it in. According to him, Delaware state police investigators are confident they will find the person responsible within 24 hours.
