Oakland County Sheriff’s investigators are searching for whoever threatened the Oxford school district with a bomb via an e-mail sent late Monday night to Deputy Superintendent Tim Throne.
‘We are looking into it,? said Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Patterson, commander of the Oxford Township substation. ‘It has been forwarded down to our computer crimes unit.?
The e-mail, which Patterson described as ‘pretty short? in length, was very vague in that it did not name any specific schools as targets nor did it mention any specific dates or times.
Officers from the Oakland and Macomb county sheriff’s offices, along with the West Bloomfield Police Department, used canines specially trained to detect explosives to conduct thorough searches of Oxford High School, Oxford Middle School and Daniel Axford Elementary.
The searches lasted well into the early morning hours and no explosives were found, according to Patterson.
These three buildings were searched because they were the only ones that were going to have people in them on Tuesday, according to the lieutenant. OHS was the only school that had students in attendance that day. That’s because staff from the district’s other buildings were engaged in professional development.
As an extra precaution, school personnel searched OHS students? bags and coats as they entered the building Tuesday morning and sheriff’s deputies were on site.
‘We had officers at all the entrances,? said Patterson, who noted the deputies did not participate in the bag/coat searches, which yielded nothing.
‘We were just there to maintain a police presence.?
Bomb threats like this, be they genuine or hoaxes, are always taken very seriously by both law enforcement agencies and school districts.
‘You never know when it is going to be the real deal,? Patterson said. ‘It puts a lot of fear in a lot of parents.?