Threat in Levittown puts school on alert

The note was written in ballpoint pen inside a stall in the second-floor boys bathroom Wednesday at MacArthur High School in Levittown.

And it was menacing.

"I Will Kill Every 1," it read, adding: "2/15/08."

Uncertain if it was a joke, an idle threat or a serious one, school district officials put a precautionary emergency management plan into effect late Wednesday night -- a plan still in effect Friday, the date noted in the handwritten message found in the bathroom.

"This is a threatening message," Nassau County Police Department spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said on Friday. "It's not funny."

Which is why officers from the Eighth Precinct enforced a police presence inside and outside the school Friday.

And everyone entering the school building on Friday was subjected to a search of coats, bags, pocketbooks -- of any package -- by school security personnel, Levittown School District Superintendent Herman A. Sirois said.

All lockers in the building were searched Thursday evening, authorities looking for possible weapons, Sirois said.

No weapons were found.

The building lockdown comes at a time when school officials are again on-edge across the nation, reminded that real on-campus rampages do exist -- sometimes accompanied by messages on bathroom walls, sometimes out of the blue.

Just Thursday night, a former grad student walked into an auditorium-style room on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., and began shooting. He killed six, police said, and injured at least a dozen more before he turned the gun on himself.

"Writing on a bathroom wall is not uncommon," Sirois said, adding: "But, we have to take it seriously . . . You hope these things aren't serious. But, no one can ever rule it out -- and so we have to be vigilant."

"There's a lot of security, a lot of cops and teachers in the hallways," MacArthur senior Bobby Ross, 18, said.

"It's a prank," he said. "I'm sure it would never happen."

Nevertheless, by Friday afternoon some parents in the district had either called the school or sent officials text messages requesting their children be dismissed before the scheduled dismissal time.

Some suggested some of those requests were out of fear, while some were -- no doubt -- made so families could get an early jump on vacation week. There are no scheduled classes next week in the district, Sirois said -- adding he was uncertain whether that or the threat had played a larger role in low attendance Friday.

Some students said that, prank or not, school officials should have canceled school -- until police could be certain there was no threat.

"I don't think there should have been school today if it was this much of a big deal," senior Katie Chaput, 17, said. "Give us the day off. It's not worth risking everyone's lives . . . There's a lot of people on edge -- and a lot of people who just don't care."

The superintendent, Sirois, said that for the most part the atmosphere at the school appears fairly typical for a normal school day, though he said students and staff have been reminded to pay attention to anything out of the ordinary -- and to talk if they see something that seems odd.

"While we're taking measures to protect our children as best we can, we also are taking measures not to scare them," Sirois said. "But we've reminded them that if something is real, we're all placed in danger -- and so we need to talk about it. So, there's a lesson here."

District officials believe that there is a good chance police -- or school officials -- will soon learn who wrote the threatening note on the wall and, therefore, will learn if the intent were serious -- or harmless.

The existence of a rumored second note, which some students spoke about Friday, could not be confirmed by school officials, and Nassau police discounted the report.

Still, Sirois said: "There's a little buzz amongst the kids right now . . . And that's good. They're not telling us who it is, but, based on the buzz, I think we're going to get it.

"I'm hopeful."

But, he added: "I don't think anyone will breathe easy until it's 2:30 -- and the kids are going home."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassa … 3173.story

Schools not out yet but I am sure everythings okay.   Kudos to the Nassau Police and School Officials for taking action so swiftly on this.