Bomb threats clear 7 Washington DC high schools; no explosives found

An eighth school, Friendship Public Charter School, also received a threat, but school was not in session.

More than a half-dozen public high schools in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after receiving anonymous bomb threats. In each case, police found no explosives.

Police officers wait outside Dunbar High School as members of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia conduct an investigation of a security threat at the school on February 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was removed from the school building by Secret Service agents due to the threat while he was attending an event in commemoration of Black History Month. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

The Metropolitan Police Department announced that seven schools received bomb threats over the phone: Dunbar High School, Theodore Roosevelt High School, Ron Brown High School, KIPP DC College Preparatory, IDEA Public Charter School, Seed Public Charter School and McKinley Tech High School.

More than a half-dozen public high schools in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Wednesday afternoon after receiving anonymous bomb threats. In each case, police found no explosives.

The Metropolitan Police Department announced that seven schools received bomb threats over the phone: Dunbar High School, Theodore Roosevelt High School, Ron Brown High School, KIPP DC College Preparatory, IDEA Public Charter School, Seed Public Charter School and McKinley Tech High School.

In each case, students were evacuated and the building searched and “cleared with no hazardous material found,” the MPD announced on Twitter.

An eighth school, Friendship Public Charter School, also received a threat, but school was not in session.

The string of threats comes a day after Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was quickly escorted out of a Black History Month event following a bomb threat during a visit to Dunbar High School. The MPD said it was “working to thoroughly investigate these threats with the assistance of our federal partners” at the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Lewis Ferebee, chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, called the threats “disturbing incidents that we take very seriously.”

In a statement, Ferebee said the school system would work closely with MPD “regarding any threat made toward our schools, students, or staff.”