Fifth bomb threat to Lebanon schools deemed not credible

Maria Flora, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
Updated ·2 min read

Apr. 30—Lebanon Community Schools received another profane bomb threat Tuesday morning, this time targeting the middle school.

It was the fifth bomb threat since March 13. Authorities evacuated Lebanon Middle School after the first and second threats, but have not since, LCSC Communications Director Lexy Buis said Tuesday morning.

The Lebanon Schools Police Department has taken extra precautionary measures that include extra police presence, arriving early and leaving late, scanning the buildings and monitoring video surveillance video.

LSP is also working with local police and following safety protocols from them and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana State Police, Buis said.

"The schools are secured, and that's why we feel confident in not having to evacuate," Buis said Tuesday.

"Our deputies, as well as Lebanon Police, are assisting with extra patrols every day," Boone County Sheriff Tony Harris said Tuesday via email. Lebanon Schools Police Department Chief Steve Smith's school resource officers "are doing a great job of making sure each school is safe prior to, during, after school, and when school lets out."

"The Lebanon Police Department, Boone County Sheriff's Department, Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department, FBI, and the Indiana State Police continue to be of great assistance," Smith said via email.

An unknown sender or senders delivered all five email threats to the school. Some also came to The Lebanon Reporter. An Indianapolis television outlet also received at least two of the emails.

The threats have targeted the middle school alone, all Lebanon schools, or no specific school. They've included some combination of administrators and school board members' homes as well.

Tuesday's profanity-laced tirade named the middle school, three board members, and a student and their family. Last Friday's threat named the same in similarly colorful language, without specifying a school.

Last Friday's threat addressed the email's recipients as "child abusers, groomers, pedophiles and other degenerates pushing your woke ideology on our children ..."

The tone of Tuesday's email seemed to be an escalation in that it used words too coarse to print in a family newspaper to describe its recipients.

Another passage in the last Friday email said, "You [sic] rather allow your children to be abused that [sic] be labelled a bigot by some woke left [omitted]."

Each emailed threat came soon after a blogger with Lebanon connections posted angry opinion pieces criticizing the Lebanon school district.

The FBI generally does not comment on active investigations, and an FBI spokesperson declined comment about Lebanon's threats on Tuesday.