Garden City students back after threat

Students and faculty returned to Garden City High School Thursday afternoon, after the building had been evacuated in the morning because of a threat, a school spokeswoman said.

Catherine Knight, a spokeswoman for the district, said faculty and about 1,200 students returned to the high school at about 1 p.m. The school had been evacuated at 10:10 a.m., after school officials became aware of a threat to the school building.

Knight said she was not at liberty to identify the threat or how it was discovered.

As students were being returned to the building, Sgt. William Grimes of the Village of Garden City police department also said he could not specify the nature of the threat.

"We did not find anything suspicious," Grimes said. "My guys are still there investigating. Other than that, I really don't have anything more."

Knight said that students were bused from the high school to a recreation building at the St. Paul's school site, a trip that takes a matter of minutes. Classes were dismissed at their scheduled time of 2:43 p.m.

A notice at gardencity.k12.ny.us said that "Students are returning to the high school from St. Paul's. School is returning to regular operations." The posting was updated a little after 1 p.m.

The school district had said on its website earlier Thursday that students were being evacuated to the St. Paul's recreation center near the high school at 170 Rockaway Ave.

"Police are on the scene and investigating. There have been no intruders, damage or injuries," a notice at the website said.

The notice asked that parents do not come to the high school or call the school. The notice said that updates would be posted at the website and parents and guardians would be notified via the school district's automated telephone messaging service.

It's the second time this month the school has been threatened. On March 1, the school was placed on lockdown as police investigated a threat found in graffiti in a bathroom.

Nothing suspicious was found in that investigation, police said at the time.