A bomb threat called into Sandy Hook Elementary School has led authorities to order students, including many who lived through the 2012 massacre, out of the building.
Police yesterday checked the school building and grounds after the threat was received at 9:30 am (Local time) and did not find evidence of danger, according to Monroe Police Lt Brian McCauley.
He said the evacuation was ordered as a precaution and the investigation is continuing.
"All students and staff are safe," Newtown First Selectman E Patricia Llodra said in a written statement. "The building and grounds will be thoroughly searched and cleared of any concern."
After the December 2012 shootings, students enrolled at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown began taking classes at a school in the neighboring town of Monroe, also called Sandy Hook Elementary. The original school building was torn down last year.
Classes were dismissed early and students were moved to a nearby school in Monroe to be picked up by their parents, according to Nancy Bartosik of the Monroe superintendent's office. Newtown police responded to the site along with Monroe police.
A single gunman, Adam Lanza, killed 20 first-graders and six educators at the school on December 14, 2012. Lanza also shot his mother in their Newtown home before going on the rampage and then committing suicide.
Federal investigators have taken interest in earlier threats to Newtown.
In June, Wilfrido Cardenas Hoffman, of Venezuela, was arrested at a Miami airport and charged with making threatening phone calls to Newtown residents in the days following the shooting. His defense attorneys say he had received psychiatric care in his home country.
