Pennsylvania State Police have identified a suspect who made an anonymous threat called into Martic Elementary School in Martic Township, leading to the closure of the school on Friday.
Penn Manor Superintendent Phil Gale said the school at 266 Martic Heights Dr. in Holtwood received anonymous phone calls threatening the school on Thursday afternoon. The building staff immediately contacted State Police, Gale said, and the school was placed on lock down with no one permitted to enter or leave the building.
In a message issued Saturday, Gale said State Police notified him Friday evening that they identified the suspect and were expected to file charges “in the coming days.” Gale said police indicated there is no further threat to the school.
“I am very grateful for the rapid response and commitment of resources the state police put forth to ensure the safety of our students and staff,” Gale said in his message on Saturday.
State Police Trooper Grothey said officers were dispatched at 2:19 p.m. on Thursday and were notified about the threat.
On arrival, Gale said, State Police assessed the situation at the school and advised staff to release students at the regular dismissal time “in small groups under police supervision.” After buses were released, he said, parents and guardians were allowed to pick up student car riders.
The district canceled all after-school activities at Martic for Thursday evening. An announcement was placed later in the day notifying parents that the school would cancel classes and activities on Friday. No other schools in the district were impacted by the threat.
“We want to commend members of law enforcement for ensuring a safe school environment and our school staff for their care in safely dismissing Martic students,” Gale said. “We also want to thank our parents for their patience and cooperation throughout this incident.”
In a follow-up announcement made Friday afternoon, Gale said as the threat unfolded on Thursday, staff at the school “purposely” did not answer phone calls from parents to keep lines of communication open with law enforcement “and the perpetrator of the threats.”
Gale said he apologized for the lack of communication with parents.
“We tried to keep all Martic parents informed of what was happening in real time,” Gale said. “Unfortunately, because our communications system on the district level was improperly set, only certain Martic parents received email and text updates about the situation.”
Gale said when school resumes on Monday, the district plans to “reassure” students that they are safe to attend classes. He said teachers and administrators will meet with students to discuss the incident and “why it was necessary to have the heavy police presence” at the school.
“We also plan to emphasize to students that the individual who threatened the school made a very bad choice and is facing major consequences as police continue to investigate this incident,” Gale said. “We encourage you to have similar conversations with your children, as well. Our top priority is the safety of our students and staff, and we appreciate your support in helping us achieve this goal.”
Staff writer Michael Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has been honored with several Keystone Press Awards for his investigative pieces.
I would personally like to thank the bus drivers who handled the situation in a very professional manner. Some of these drivers have children in this school so in a very stressful situation they all stayed calm and did an outstanding job getting all the children home safely. I realized the minute the phones started to ring off the hook at Eschbach bus service with frantic parents calling we needed to assure them that their children were safe. We loaded all Martic buses into our system and tracked each one to insure they were all where they should be as they were taking students home. It definitely was a scary situation for everyone but was handled by a group of professionals that had your children’s safety as the most important factor.