Bomb Threats Prompt Evacuations At Claremore Schools

After a bomb threat prompted evacuations to Claremore Schools, the police department spent the day searching and clearing buildings.

So far, Claremore Police have cleared the high school, junior high school and an elementary school. Police will search and clear all buildings throughout the night.

Police said the call came to Claremore High School around 10:45 Tuesday morning. Officers said the caller told the secretary that there were bombs in backpacks inside the elementary and high schools.

The secretary questioned the caller, who officers said was trying to disguise their voice, then the call ended.

"Our first priority is the safety of our staff and our students, and, therefore, they were all immediately evacuated to safe locations," said Jamie Brace with Claremore Public Schools.

Claremore Police Chief Stan Brown said, "As you can understand, there is a lot of chaos and confusion when something like this comes in, and they've done a really good job at ensuring your students were kept safe."

The district evacuated students to safe places where parents could pick them up. Once the schools were empty, officers started searching the buildings for any kind of explosives.

Brown said no bomb has been found, but officers won’t leave until every school has been cleared.

"We simply cannot tolerate these threats on our students, on our facilities and on our citizens, and we can't tolerate this kind of disruption to the learning environment of our students," he said. "This is a criminal offense. We are going to do what we can within our power to ensure that this person is found and brought to justice."

The chief said several agencies have been helping respond to the threat, including Tulsa Police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol bomb squad.