St. John Vianney High School evacuated; bomb threat
January 15, 2014Jersey Shore Dream Center thanks Levine for his donations
January 16, 2014Holmdel – Students and staff were evacuated this morning after a 911 operator received a phone call that a bomb was inside St. John Vianney High School. It is a private Roman Catholic school for students in ninth to twelfth grade.
At first the students and staff were evacuated to the front area of the school. They were then moved to St. Benedict’s, which is just down the street. Officers from the Holmdel Police Department and the Tactical Unit and the K-9 Unit of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Department responded.
Just after 2:00 this afternoon Sheriff Golden stated in a prepared statement that the threat was unfounded and officers had swept the school using detection abilities and discovered nothing. “Sweeps are negative and all the kids are safe,” said Golden in a text message.
Just after the students were evacuated about 20-30 parents showed up in the area to find out what was going on. That number quickly grew to over 200 within thirty minutes. A majority of those parents were upset as they were not receiving any updates or information on what was occurring.
According to a statement from the Diocese of Trenton, which oversees the school, administration was unable notify parents because they had to evacuate the building and were barred by police to access the computers in the school to gain the required information.
However, once the students and staff were at a safe location, at St. Benedict’s Elementary School which then went into a lockdown, the technology department of SJV was able to remotely log into the high school system a notice was sent out to the parents.
Anyone with information on this hoax can call Monmouth County Crime Stoppers at 800-671-4400 or text Monmouth plus your tip to 274637.