Multiple Maine schools take safety precautions Wednesday morning due to threats

Maine (WABI) - It was a hectic Wednesday morning for local law enforcement and some areas schools as officers respond to schools for what they’re calling “hoax swatting calls.”

The first call came in to Old Town Elementary School at 8:02 a.m. for a person with a firearm making threats.

At 8:03 a.m., the school resource officer responded to the scene. At 8:04 a.m., other area officers also responded. They began to search the parking lot and inside the school and deemed it was safe.

All three schools in the district, RSU 34, were placed on lockdown as a precaution.

“Very important to have the school resource officer. Really, our training is phenomenal, you know, our SRO is involved in that active shooter type response training. And this is just a testament to great training, and that includes the Maine State Police, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, Maine Warden Service, and any of the other agencies that showed up that I didn’t see, did a phenomenal job, showed up, found the job, and just did a great job,” said Lt. Ryan Bailey, Old Town Police.

“We absolutely take calls seriously and we also understand how upsetting this can be for families, students alike. And for that reason we did send a message to let families know that we has support available if needed, but we also understood if families wanted to dismiss their children from school. Which local law enforcement helped to assist with that,” said Matthew Cyr, RSU 34 superintendent.

Maine State Police and Old Town Police investigated the threats. Maine State Police says those threats were deemed non-credible. The Old Town Police Department says they are working with the Maine State Police computer crime unit to determine who is making these calls.

Old Town schools are in secure school mode, which means it is business as usual, but there is additional vigilance outside school entrances.

Bailey says Houlton schools also received similar threats and they have been in contact with them all morning.

These threats have all been similar in nature, a person with a firearm threatening to do harm.

RSU 29, which is the Houlton school district, posted on social media Wednesday morning that their schools had been placed on lockdown. They lifted the lockdown around 9:30 a.m.

The University of Maine posted on their website that they were in a “Shelter in Place” due to the incident in Old Town. As of 9:00 a.m. this morning, it has been removed.

We will continue to follow the story throughout the day and give you updates when they come in.