SALAMANCA, N.Y. — A so-called violent threat prompted Salamanca City Central School District officials to cancel all activities Monday, including classes.
After further investigation, and the determination that the threat made has been mitigated, district Superintendent Robert Breidenstein told WGRZ-TV that classes and activities will resume on Tuesday.
“I think we can say that the threat is understood, and the level of threat has been dramatically reduced and that school will open tomorrow,” he said.
The school district said it learned of the threat at 8:45pm on Sunday and described it as "specific violent threat directed at Salamanca students and the school by minor students."
The threat was deemed "credible enough" by school officials, at which point they chose to cancel all activities.
The Threat
“Unfortunately, young kids make statements that are really inflammatory and cause an immediate reaction,” said Breidenstein, who says the investigation has since determined that the initial threat was made by some students against others at a city owned playground.
“I can confirm that we now know, and which we did not know in the early hours of this morning, that the threat was not intended to occur on school grounds,” said Breidenstein
He also described the threat as involving weapons, but not firearms.
Why Close the Schools?
“Police and our school team spent several hours to determine the full nature and scope of the threat,” said Breidenstein. “It wasn’t until the very early hours of this morning that we were able to understand the nature of the threat and the intended target of the threat,” he said.
By that time, according to Breidenstein the determination had already been made to close schools as a precaution.
“We were operating under our threat matrix and safety protocols where we assume only matters that we can verify in fact. Everything else maintains a higher level of threat assessment and district responsiveness.,” said Breidenstein. “Unfortunately, in the world we currently live in a threat is a threat and until we can confirm it is not a threat and that the facts are not accurately representing what was alleged or purported to occur or to potentially be planned, we have to assume that it is a threat and it is credible until such as time that the facts lead us in a different direction.”
Will Anyone Be Charged?
In terms of whether anyone involved will be charged criminally, Breidenstein deferred to the City of Salamanca Police Department, which he described as the lead investigative agency.
Acting Chief of Police Chief Jamie Deck has not yet returned a call seeking comment.
“Whether the Salamanca police file criminal charges I’ll defer to them,” said Breidenstein. “The school district will take appropriate action on the students. I think I can safely say that their actions did cause a substantial disruption to school operations which is the threshold necessary to impose any disciplinary consequence for events that occur off school grounds.”