For the third time in close to two months, an email containing threats of violence forced the closure of Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta.
Classes at GSB were previously canceled on Dec. 21, 2022 and Jan. 13 after the school received emails referencing bombs being placed in the school as well as the homes of four specific employees.
A third threat was emailed in the early morning hours of Friday, Feb. 17, before students or faculty and staff were in the building for the last day of school before February break. With security measures in place due to the other threats the school had received in the past 58 days, investigators were able to quickly determine the email to be another hoax, Damariscotta Police Chief Jason Warlick said.
“There was another aspect of the threat we needed time to investigate to see if it was credible … and we deemed it to be a hoax,” Warlick said.
Superintendent Lynsey Johnston echoed Warlick’s sentiment in a statement sent to GSB families Friday afternoon.
“This particular incident escalated the threats towards the school and was different from the previously received threats, which made it necessary to cancel school today for the safety of all students and staff while it was assessed,” Johnston said in the statement.
The school will continue to work with state, federal, and private agencies to assess any threats and support ongoing investigations into the sources of the threats, Johnston said. She added administrators are still hopeful to avoid fully implementing remote learning, a previously floated possibility by school officials.
Law enforcement will continue to treat threats as if they are real every time, Warlick said.
“With our heightened security measures, we are able to validate or disprove threats much more quickly and with much more confidence,” Warlick said.