School District Investigating Bomb Threat

The Ridgefield School District is, with the help of the district’s school resource officer, investigating a bomb threat found in a boys’ bathroom that turned out to be a hoax.

According to Lt. Thomas Comstock of the Ridgefield Police Department, the minimum that a suspect could be charged with for the hoax at Ridgefield High School is breach of peace.

Some parents were concerned that the school was not evacuated or closed for the day.

Comstock said that the police department has a policy about when to evacuate due to a bomb threat, and that the Nov. 13 threat did not meet that criteria. He said he didn’t want to detail the policy so that students could not mimic the requirements for a school closure.

Ridgefield High School Principal Stacy Gross said in a letter to parents that the school and police department, “[did] not feel it is a credible threat.”

School administrators could not be reached for comment becauses offices were closed in the evening. 

School officials believe that the hoax coincides with an ongoing trend of calling in a bomb threat after the midnight release of a blockbuster videogame.

"Each time in the past few years, the threat has coincided with the release of a popular video game and when investigated the police deemed the building to be safe," wrote Gross. "Today’s threat is also consistent with this pattern, as the new video game will be released at midnight."