Students at Hall-Dale Middle School & High School in Farmingdale were evacuated from the school for about three hours after the school received a bomb threat Monday morning, according to Superintendent William Zima of Regional School Unit 2.

At 10:30 a.m., a school guidance counselor received what sounded like a pre-recorded bomb threat, Zima said. While Zima could not provide details about the threat, he said the guidance counselor described the caller as having a “robocall voice.”

The school district immediately had students leave the school and reported the incident to Maine State Police. When state police arrived, they did a “very methodical” sweep of the school with a bomb-sniffing dog and found no evidence of a threat, Zima said.

The school’s students were taken to Hall-Dale Elementary School in Hallowell, according to an evacuation plan previously worked out by the school district, Zima said. Once police had determined there was no threat, students returned to the school at 1:15 p.m.

While Zima said it was unfortunate the school received the threat and had to interrupt class time, he did credit students and staff for their calm and orderly evacuation.

“The response by teachers and kids was great,” he said. “It went like clockwork.”

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Zima said the school has not received a bomb threat in the four years Principal Mark Tinkham has worked there. He was not aware of any earlier threats.

But today’s was not the first bomb threat to affect an area school this year. In March, Augusta public schools received a bomb threat that ultimately proved unfounded via email.

Also on Monday, multiple schools in New Hampshire reportedly received bomb threats, according to the television station WMUR.

Charles Eichacker — 621-5642

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @ceichacker


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