FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Police are investigating multiple bomb threats against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) over a span of six days.
On Saturday, June 11, the Fairfax County Police department was notified by an FCPS IT employee that they had found multiple email threats sent to schools throughout Fairfax County. According to FCPD, even some faculty members were named in the email threats.
"The Fairfax County Police Department takes these threats seriously, and a detective from our Special Investigations Unit was immediately assigned to these cases," Second Lieutenant Yost wrote in an email to WUSA9.
Yost added that patrol units and K9 teams searched several of the locations due to the school’s request.
Police said nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary has been found during searches, and the department believes the threats are "non-credible and originated from outside the country."
"Several tragic incidents throughout the country have put school safety programs into the national spotlight," Yost said.
In this period of heightened security, Yost said people could try to intimidate and threaten school communities, for unknown reasons.
The Metropolitan Police Department has also dealt with recent bomb threat scares. Back in February, MPD had to deal with eight school threats in one day, leading to the arrest of two 16-year-old boys charged with terroristic threats. The day before, a telephone threat against Dunbar High School led Secret Service agents to clear Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff from the building.
Yost said the FCPS threats have caused "minimal distraction" for students beginning their summer break.
When WUSA9 reached out to FCPS for comment on these threats on Thursday night they responded, writing, "We know nothing about this. If you get further information from FCPD, please reach back out."
When we reached out again today they said, "We will leave the police to speak to this."