Bomb Threat Clears D.C. Schools

Thousands of high school students spent much of Monday waiting for police to complete searches of their campuses in the nation's capital. The searches were prompted by a telephone bomb threat received by District of Columbia police.

"The call came in to our communication's department," said Metropolitan Police Department Officer Ken Bryson. Police notified school officials within moments of receiving the 9:40 a.m. call. By ten o'clock, full-scale evacuations were underway at all high school campuses in the system.

"They said the explosion would occur at one of 13 buildings, but we have 19 programs on 17 campuses," said school spokeswoman Denise Tann. About 14,000 students attend the city's high schools.

Students were kept in groups at locations near the campuses but off of school grounds because of the nature of the threat.

"The evacuations were conducted similar to fire drills," said Tann. By the 3:15 scheduled ending of the school day only nine of 17 buildings had been cleared.

"Police will keep working until all the buildings have been checked. We do have after school programs so some of them may be affected," Tann said, noting that nothing had been found.

Officials conceded that some students left expressing concern about their safety in the wake of last week's Littleton, Colo. school slayings.

The Metropolitan Police Department dispatched teams of officers and bomb sniffing dogs to each building to conduct the searches. Many of the teams were fresh from three long 12-hour days of work on the NATO Summit. During that event, more than 30 bomb threats were received and investigated. No explosives were found.

Some of the dog teams involved in the search were on loan from the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police Department.

Officials say that Monday's call originated within the District of Columbia.

"The investigation is ongoing," said district police officer Anthony O'Leary.